Kenya Garissa students 'taken hostage' by gunmen

 

Gunmen have taken students hostage and killed four people at a university in north-eastern Kenya, near the Somali border, aid workers and police say.

About 30 wounded after gunmen stormed Garissa University College. Troops have surrounded the campus and are engaging the attackers.

  

Witnesses spoke of the gunmen firing indiscriminately and there are fears the casualty toll could rise.
Islamist al-Shabab militants from Somalia have regularly targeted Kenya.
Garissa and other border areas have often been attacked.

Exchange of fire

Some five masked gunmen are said to have stormed the university.
A policeman at the scene told Reuters news agency that some students had been taken hostage.
"We can't tell how many but they are many since the college was in session," the unnamed policeman is quoted as saying.
The Kenyan Red Cross said about 50 students had been "safely freed", but an unknown number were still being held, AFP news agency reports.
Security forces were now trying to flush out the gunmen, a police statement posted on Twitter said.
It urged people to stay away from the area. The statement did not confirm that hostages had been taken.
Two guards were confirmed killed at the main university gate, with two policemen and a student among the injured. But eyewitnesses spoke of many casualties inside the building.