Students held hostage in Kenya university attack

Two guards killed and about 30 wounded as masked gunmen storm university complex in town of Garissa, police say.

Two Garissa University College guards were killed as masked gunmen stormed the complex, police told Al Jazeera [Google Maps]

Gunmen have attacked a college campus in the town of Garissa in northeast Kenya, shooting indiscriminately in dormitories and killing at least two people and wounding 40 others, police said.
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.

Terrified students streamed out of buildings, some young men shirtless, as arriving police officers hunkered down, taking cover, witnesses said.
The gunmen opened fire at university, triggering a "fierce shootout" with police guarding student dorms, Kenya's National Police Service said in a written statement.
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. Another 40 people were reported injured.
No group has claimed responsibility for the raid yet. Somali armed group al-Shab-aab has carried out several attacks in Garissa and across Kenya in the past, including the 2013 attack on an upscale shopping mall in the capital Nairobi.
Al-Qaeda-linked al-Shabab has vowed to punish Kenya for sending troops into Somalia alongside African Union peacekeepers to fight the group.
Speaking to Al Jazeera, Farah Maalim, a former Kenyan Deputy Parliamentary Speaker, described the attack on the university as "scary".
"The university has no less than a 1,000 students. The damage can be colossal, but no one seems to know at this point," Maalim said.
"You cannot fight these isolated attacks with conventional military tactics, which still seems to be the only response."
"There is a possible intelligence lapse here, and that is no excuse [because] we have state of the art of intelligence gathering and plans can be intercepted."
Maalim said there was no doubt that al-Shabab was behind the attack.
"It is undoubtedly al-Shabab. It is nobody else. They are on the death bed. They need to be in the limelight; that is why they are going for these soft targets," he said.

Garissa University College (GUC), the only public institution of higher learning in the region, opened its doors in 2011, according to the institution's website.
The institution is situated in Garissa County in the northeastern region of Kenya, about 380km from Nairobi, the capital.

Gunmen attacked the university early on Thursday, shooting indiscriminately in campus hostels [The Associated Press]

Kenyan troops and policemen cordoned off the university complex [Alinoor Moulid Bosh/Al Jazeera] [Al Jazeera]