Authorities have killed four terrorists who held hostages and killed university students Thursday, Kenyan Interior Ministry Joseph Nkaissery said. The “operation has ended successfully” at Garissa University College. “It is a very sad day for Kenya.” The Somalia-based Al-Shabaab militant group claimed responsibility for the assault.
A total of 147 people were killed in the attack, according to the official Twitter account of Kenya’s National Disaster Operation Centre and Kenyan media reports. The agency also reports on its Twitter account that plans are underway to evacuate the remaining students and others from the area.
The death toll suggests the attack was deadlier than an Al-Shabaab attack on the Westgate shopping center in Nairobi in September 2013 that left 67 people dead.