Now you may have read earlier today about the escalating crisis in Kenya but as more information comes to light it has become clear just how horrid the scenes inside Garissa College University must be.

Whilst some news sources say at least 15 people have been killed News24 puts the number at 20. Other students have been taken hostage after gunmen from the Islamist group al-Shabab stormed the campus and opened fire. The BBC reports:

Reports say 65 others were wounded… [with] more than 500 students still unaccounted for, a minister said. The number of hostages is unclear.

Al-Shabab, which is linked to al-Qaeda, said it was holding Christians hostage and freeing Muslims.

One student, Collins Wetangula, told reporters that the gunmen were opening doors in hostels asking whether those hiding were Christian or Muslim. He added this:

If you were a Christian you were shot on the spot. With each blast of the gun I thought I was going to die.

It is believed there are five gunmen inside the university at present, and Kenyan security forces claim to have isolated them in a single building.

Here’s the lowdown on al-Shabab from the BBC:

Al-Shabab means The Youth in Arabic.

It emerged as the radical youth wing of Somalia’s now-defunct Union of Islamic Courts, which controlled Mogadishu in 2006, before being forced out by Ethiopian forces…

It is banned as a terrorist group by both the US and the UK and is believed to have between 7,000 and 9,000 fighters.

Here’s hoping authorities deal with these gunmen swiftly and free the hostages before there is any further loss of life.

[source:bbc&news24]