Kenya university attack leaves at least 15 dead, police say

[GARISSA] At least 15 people were killed when suspected Islamist gunmen raided a university campus in eastern Kenya, police said.

56 other people were hospitalized in the Thursday attack on Garissa University, while about 530 more are unaccounted for, Garissa county police Commander Charles Kinyua told reporters. Garissa town is located about 228 miles (367 kilometres) east of Kenya's capital, Nairobi, and 90 miles from the border with Somalia, home of the al-Qaeda-linked al-Shabaab militant group.

One suspected gunman was arrested while trying to flee the scene, Kenya's Interior Ministry said on its Twitter account.

Al-Shabaab spokesman Abdul Aziz Abu Musab said the militants broke into the university compound, took control and killed "many Christian enemies." He was speaking to Radio Andalus, a Somalia-based broadcaster that backs the insurgents.

Attacks in Kenya soared after the government in 2011 sent troops into Somalia to fight al-Shabaab following a wave of kidnappings and the murder of a British tourist in Kenya that the government blamed on the group.

BLOOMBERG