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Kenya's Red Cross said 65 casualties were taken to a local hospital, most with gunshot wounds. It said
five of the wounded were airlifted to Nairobi for treatment.
Student details attack
Students in campus housing were awakened Thursday by the sound of gunfire. Student Beatrice Mathai
told VOA she and fellow students fled when they heard what she called a heavy exchange.
"We run from where we were, kneeled down and looked out towards the football club," Mathai said.
"Finally, we jumped over the buildings wall. Before the attack we were 29 students, now we are seven,
we are very frightened and even do not know where we are now. "
Student Mercy Chebet told VOA she and other students evacuated the dormitories as the gunmen
approached.
It started in the classes and we were in the hostels sleeping, so when we heard the bullets, we just
moved out of the hostels and ran to the field, Chebet said. When we were in the field, they came to the
hostels and they were shooting where we were."
She said the gunmen then moved into the dormitories and began firing. She said she spoke by phone to
some friends still inside.
They're inside, they are being held hostage and the policemen are outside. I don't know what will happen
next, Chebet said.
Collins Wetangula, the vice chairman of the student union, told The Associated Press he was preparing to
take a shower when he heard gunshots coming from Tana dorm, which hosts both men and women, 150
meters (yards) away.
He said that when he heard the gunshots he locked himself and three roommates in their room. When the
gunmen arrived at his dormitory, he could hear them opening doors and asking if the people who had
hidden inside whether they were Muslims or Christians.
If you were a Christian, you were shot on the spot, he said. With each blast of the gun, I thought I was
going to die.
The gunmen then started to shoot rapidly and it was as if there was an exchange of fire, he said.
The next thing, we saw people in military uniform through the window of the back of our rooms who
identified themselves as the Kenyan military, Wetangula said. The soldiers took him and around 20
others to safety.
Threat letter
The University of Nairobi warned its students last week that al-Shabab was planning attacks on Kenyan
institutions, including a "major university."
In an email obtained by VOA with the subject "TERROR THREAT" dated March 26, the University of
Nairobi's security office said information about a possible attack was "being processed by the
relevant government agencies."
It is not clear yet that Garissa University received or posted the same warning.
The town of Garissa, in northeastern Kenya, is about 200 kilometers (125 miles) from the border with
Somalia and has, in recent years, been the site of sporadic gun and grenade attacks blamed on alShabab.
Al-Shabab is known for assaults on large buildings, such as the Westgate mall in Nairobi in 2013, and
Somalia's presidential palace, which it attacked twice last year. The Westgate attack killed more than 60
civilians.
Last week al-Shabab claimed responsibility for a deadly siege on a Mogadishu hotel that lasted more
than 12 hours and in which at least 24 people, including six attackers, were killed.
Kenyatta announced that he would fast-track the training of 10,000 additional police, saying the country
has suffered unnecessarily due to shortage of security personnel.