At least two people were killed and 30 others injured after armed attackers stormed a college in Kenya on Thursday, officials said.
Masked gunmen “shot indiscriminately” and “heavy gunfire and explosions” could be heard during the hours-long standoff at Garissa University College, officials said. The Red Cross said an unknown number of students were being held hostage.
The attackers were holed-up inside student housing after a gunbattle with security services, the country’s National Disaster Operation Center said just after 11 a.m. local time (4 a.m. ET).
Officials said the town had been “locked down” during the incident. Security agencies were “flushing out” the attackers, according to Kenya’s National Police Service.
The attack comes three days after President Barack Obama announced he would visit the East African country in July. The U.S. Embassy in Kenya’s capital Nairobi said via its Twitter account: “We are saddened & angered by today’s terrorist attack @ #Garissa Univ. Our deepest condolences 2 family/friends of victims.”
The country’s National Disaster Operation Center said two people had been killed in the incident, according to Reuters. The Kenya Red Cross said 30 people had been injured, four of which were “very serious.”
No group immediately claimed responsibility for the attack. Al Shabab — the al Qaeda-linked terror group based in Somalia, whose border is around 100 miles from the college — has carried out past attacks in Kenya.
In 2013, it claimed responsibility for an assault on Nairobi’s upscale Westgate Mall that left more than 60 dead.
AP(Source: NBC News)
