At least 15 dead as gunmen attack university in Kenya
NAIROBI, Kenya (AP) —
Al-Shabab gunmen attacked a college in northeast Kenya early Thursday,
targeting Christians and killing at least 15 people and wounding 60
others, witnesses said.
Even as
security forces cornered the gunmen in a dormitory at Garissa University
College where they could be holding hostages, survivors described to
The Associated Press a harrowing scene, where people were mercilessly
gunned down and bullets whistled through the air as they ran for their
lives.
Collins Wetangula, the vice chairman of the student union,
said he was preparing to take a shower when he heard gunshots coming
from Tana dorm, which hosts both men and women, 150 meters (yards) away.
The campus has six dorms and at least 887 students, he said.He said that when he heard the gunshots he locked himself and three roommates in their room.
"All I could hear were footsteps and gunshots nobody was screaming because they thought this would lead the gunmen to know where they are," he said. "The gunmen were saying sisi ni al-Shabab (Swaihi for we are al-Shabab)," Wetangula said.
When the gunmen arrived at his dormitory he could hear them opening doors and asking if the people who had hidden inside whether they were Muslims or Christians.
"If you were a Christian you were shot on the spot," he said. "With each blast of the gun I thought I was going to die."
The gunmen started to shoot rapidly and it was as if there was an exchange of fire, he said.
"The
next thing, we saw people in military uniform through the window of the
back of our rooms who identified themselves as the Kenyan military,"
Wetangula said. The soldiers took him and around 20 others to safety.
A
spokesman for al-Shabab says it is responsible for the ongoing attack.
Ali Mohamud Rage said in a radio broadcast that fighters from the group
are conducting a "heavy" military operation inside the campus.Kenya's security forces are trying to dislodge the gunmen from at least one dorm where the attackers could be holding hostages.
Michael Bwana, a
20-year-old student who fled the attack, said he and other survivors
have been trying to call their trapped friends but their phones are
switched off. Either the students turned off their phones for their own
safety or the gunmen have seized the handsets, he said.
"Most of
the people still inside there are girls," Bwana said, referring to the
student dormitory in which gunmen are believed to be holding an unknown
number of students.
One
suspected extremist was arrested as he attempted to flee the scene,
Interior Minister Joseph Nkaissery told a press conference in Nairobi.
Augustine
Alanga, a 21-year-old student, described a panicked scene as gunshots
rang out outside their dormitory in the pre-dawn hours when most people
were asleep.The shooting became more intense almost immediately, he told AP by phone. The heavy gunfire forced some students to stay indoors as others fled with gunmen firing at them.
He said he saw at least five heavily armed, masked gunmen.
"I
am just now recovering from the pain as I injured myself while trying
to escape. I was running barefoot," said Alanga, who was one of scores
of students who managed to escape through barb-wire fencing.
At
the time the attack started — 5:30 a.m. — morning prayers were underway
at the university mosque, where students were not attacked, he said.
A
mortuary attendant in the town of Garissa says at least 15 people have
been killed and at some 60 were injured. The attendant saw the
casualties arrive by ambulance. He spoke on condition of anonymity
because he was not authorized to speak to the press.
Some of the more serious wounded were being flown to Nairobi, the capital, authorities said.
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