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Police: Gunmen Kill Two in Attack on Kenya University Students


Police officers stand by dead bodies after an attack by Islamist militants from the Somali group al-Shabab in Mandera, Kenya, Oct. 6, 2016.
Police officers stand by dead bodies after an attack by Islamist militants from the Somali group al-Shabab in Mandera, Kenya, Oct. 6, 2016.

Two staff members were killed and several students were wounded in Kenya when gunmen fired on vehicles carrying students to the Technical University of Mombasa's campus in coastal Kwale county on Tuesday, a police official and a witness said.

The identity of the gunmen was unclear.

Somali militant Islamist group al Shabaab frequently carries out attacks along the Kenya-Somali border and along the Kenyan coast. In 2015, it attacked a university in Kenya's Garissa town, killing 148 students.

Two female staff members were killed Tuesday's attack, and a driver and two policemen were injured, a police official who did not want to be named told Reuters.

"A bus carrying students of TUM (the Technical University of Mombasa) was ferrying them from their hostels to the campus in Ukunda for classes and was being escorted by a van that had some staff of the college and two escort police officers," the policeman said.

"Armed men numbering about 10 emerged from the bushes and started firing at the van in front. As a result two ladies who are staff of TUM were killed in the van. The driver of the van and two police officers were injured," he said.

A witness who did not want to be named told Reuters she and several other students had fled their vehicle when gunmen opened fire on them and had seen several students covered in blood.

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    Reuters

    Reuters is a news agency founded in 1851 and owned by the Thomson Reuters Corporation based in Toronto, Canada. One of the world's largest wire services, it provides financial news as well as international coverage in over 16 languages to more than 1000 newspapers and 750 broadcasters around the globe.

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