Kenya: At least 147 Dead in University Shooting

(BostonHearld) April 2, 2015 - Kenya's national disaster operations center and the interior minister say the attack by al-Shabab gunmen on a college campus has claimed 147 lives, besides four attackers who also died. The interior minister said most of those killed Thursday were students but included two police officers, one soldier and two watchmen.

The disaster center said plans are underway to evacuate students and other affected persons.

It was by far the highest death toll in an attack by al-Shabab, an Islamic extremist group from neighboring Somalia, on Kenyan soil.

Kenyan security officials at the scene of an attack by Islamic extremists on a college in northeast Kenya say the security operation to free hostages is over and that the death toll may be as high as around 150. Dozens of hostages were freed, they said, with four of the gunmen killed. The gunfire has ended, according to Associated Press reporters near the scene.

Interior Minister Joseph Nkaissery said gave the death at 70 but conceded that it could go higher. Police officials who could insisted on anonymity because they are not authorized to speak with the press said the toll could be as high as about 150

One Kenyan police source said there were 147 dead and another police source said 160. A third source put the death toll at around 80 but said there were so many bodies that he could not do a proper count as night fell with no electrical power to light the scene.

Kenyan Interior Minister Joseph Nkaissery says that more than 70 people have been killed in an attack by Somali-based Islamic extremists on a college in northeast Kenya.

Nkaissery said that 79 people were wounded in the attack Thursday and four suspected attackers have been killed. He told reporters the total number of the attackers is still unknown and that security agents are fighting them at Garissa University College.

The minister ordered a dusk to dawn curfew in Garissa and in the nearby counties of Wajir, Tana River and Mandera.

Al-Shabab claimed responsibility for the attack.

The death toll now surpasses the 67 who were killed in al-Shabab's attack on the Westgate Mall in Nairobi in September 2013. Read the rest