Five arrested in connection with Kenya’s Garissa University College attack

| Updated: Saturday, April 4, 2015, 14:51 [IST]

Garissa (Kenya), April 4: Five suspects have been arrested in connection with gruesome attack at the Kenyan university, media reported Saturday.

At least 148 people, including 142 students of Garissa University College, three security officers, two university security personnel and one more died in the attack carried out by masked Somali militants al-Shabaab on Thursday.

The attack left 104 people injured, including 19 who are in critical condition, CNN reported citing Kenya's interior minister Joseph Nkaissery as saying.

Tossing grenades and spraying bullets at cowering students, the attackers initially killed indiscriminately. But they later freed some Muslims and instead targeted Christian students during a siege that lasted about 15 hours, media reported.

Al-Shabab has carried out a number of attacks in Kenya since 2011, when Kenyan troops were sent to Somalia to help fight the militant group there.

Masked gunmen attack Kenya's university, casualties feared Masked gunmen attack Kenya's university, casualties feared

The deadliest attack targeted the Westgate shopping centre in Nairobi in September 2013, when 67 people were killed. Al-Shabab is fighting to create an Islamic state in Somalia and is banned as a terrorist group by both the US and Britain.