As many as 14 people have been killed and more than 40 wounded when masked gunmen stormed a college in a Kenyan town near the border with Somalia, trapping students inside and exchanging gunfire with security forces over several hours.
A body count from a police officer on the scene returned 14 dead, including two police officers.
Police and soldiers surrounded the campus at the Garissa University College and were attempting to flush out the gunmen, Joseph Boinet, Kenya’s inspector general, said in a statement.
“The attackers shot indiscriminately while inside the university compound,” he said.
The gunmen were holding an “unknown number of student hostages” at the campus, the Kenya Red Cross said in a statement.
Some “50 students have been safely freed”, the organisation said.
Fighting was continuing, however, with the gunmen now holed up in a student dormitory hostel.