Kenyan police have arrested five suspects in the Garissa University college attack that happened on Thursdaywhich left almost 150 people dead, officials say.
Some of the suspects were arrested while trying to flee to neighbouring Somalia, the internal security ministry Joseph Nkaissery said
Thursday’s attack by Al-Shabaab militants who claimed responsibility killed 147 people, including 142 students, three security officers and two university security personnel.
However other sources put the figure of those dead at 148.
The attack left 104 people injured, including 19 who remain in critical condition. One survivor has narrated to the media how she played dead for ten hours by smearing herself with blood from her dead colleagues.
“I slowly took blood from a dead colleague lying besides me and smeared it all over my head and hands. At this time, only one attacker was in the room as the rest went upstairs. I played dead for 10 hours despite being heavily pregnant,” a tearful Ms Millicent Murugi told local media.
Al-Shabab has since pledged a “long, gruesome war” against Kenya.
The militant group said its attacks were in retaliation for acts by Kenya’s security forces, who are part of the African Union’s mission in Somalia against al-Shabab.
Al-Shabab was also blamed for the Westgate Mall attack in the capital Nairobi in 2013, in which 67 people died.
Two suspects were arrested on Friday on the University compound as the mopping exercise went on.One is said to be a Tanzanian national with no known links to the university.
Kenyan newspapers earlier said security services seem to have had information that an attack on an institution of higher learning was likely, and appear to have warned such establishments to be careful.
The bodies of those killed in Garissa have been flown to Nairobi for identification, as local mortuaries have been unable to cope, and many of the students killed came from other parts of the country.
The masked attackers killed two security guards at dawn on Thursday, then rampaged through campus, shooting and shouting “we are al-Shabab”.
They singled out Christians and shot them, witnesses said.
While many of the survivors spoke to the media, little is known so far about those who were killed.
