Students held hostage in Kenya university attack

Masked gunmen have attacked a university in the town of Garissa in northeast Kenya, police said, as ongoing gunfire could be heard from the university premises.

Witnesses said explosion and heavy gunfire rocked Garissa University College early on Thursday as the gunmen stormed the complex. Ambulances were seen driving injured students to local hospitals.

The gunmen were holding an “unknown number of student hostages,” the Kenya Red Cross said in a statement. Some “50 students have been safely freed”, the organisation said.

Police spokesperson Zipporah Mboroki told Al Jazeera that the situation is ongoing and that the gunmen were holed up inside the university complex.

“The attackers shot the guards at the entrance of the university. Police officers responded but the attackers managed to get into the [university] hostel,” she said.

“We can confirm that two watchmen were killed; we cannot confirm student casualties,” Mboroki added.

Local journalists, however, reported that at least 10 bodies were brought to a hospital in Garissa.

“The Kenyan Defence Force and all security agencies within Garissa have been deployed to the scene,” Mboroki said.

The attack on the university facility began at dawn, Alinoor Moulid, a freelance journalist based in Garissa, told Al Jazeera.

“According to some of the students who escaped, there are around five gunmen and they entered the university dormitory while students were sleeping,” Moulid said.

“It is hard to tell [about casualties] because the area is now cordoned off, and it is heavily guarded,” he added.