BBC Outside Source heard from Garissa siege eyewitness Geremano. He told them he went to the hospital in the north-eastern Kenyan town at 07:00 local time (05:00 GMT) and while he was there an army officer came in to be treated after being shot in a leg.

He also spoke to students from Garissa University College with gunshot wounds who said it the attack been unimaginable: "It was something they didn't expect to happen at the school."

In response to the university attack, the Kenya Red Cross has asked residents of Garissa to donate blood. Those who responded went to Garissa PG Hospital where a site was set up under a tree.

Image source, AP

Many ambulances, emergency and military vehicles are on the roads of the north-eastern Kenyan town of Garissa as an al-Shabab siege continues at Garissa University College:

Image source, Reuters

Image source, Reuters

Garissa University College student Collins Wetangula said when the gunmen entered his hostel he could hear them opening doors and asking if the people who had hidden inside were Muslims or Christians.

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

He said some security officers then entered through a window and took him and some other students to safety.

Student Collins Wetangula told the Associated Press news agency that he was about to shower when the attack began on Kenya's Garissa University College. He and three others locked themselves in their room.

"All I could hear were footsteps and gunshots nobody was screaming because they thought this would lead the gunmen to know where they are. The gunmen were saying, 'Sisi ni al-Shabab' (Swahili for, 'We are al-Shabab')," he said.

Kenya Red Cross tweets, external from the Garissa University College siege: "#Update 3 critical casualties being evacuated to #Nairobi #GarissaAttack"

VOA journalist Harun Maruf tweeted, external from the Garissa University College siege about an hour ago at 09:51 GMT that at least one militant could be "seen on a rooftop firing back at Kenya security forces", according to witnesses.

Kenyan journalist Dennis Okari tweeted, external around half an hour ago at 10:18 GMT about the Garissa University College siege: "Just been told to take cover outside the University. I can hear heavy gunfire & explosions. Hundreds of students run out, some crawling."

The Kenyan government tweets, external that President Uhuru Kenyatta is going to update the nation on the Garissa University College attack.

They are using the hashtag #OneKenya, external.

The top hashtag on Twitter in Kenya at the moment is #GarissaAttack and #WeAreOne was also trending earlier.

Kenya's Interior Minister Joseph Nkaissery says 280 of 815 students have been accounted for at Garissa University College, which is under siege by Somali militants. "Efforts are underway to track the others," he is quoted as saying, external by the Kenya National Disaster Operation Centre.

The campus of Kenya's Garissa University College is about 5km (three miles) from the centre of Garissa town:

Image source, _

Kenya police say one militant has been arrested while trying to escape from the campus of Garissa College University that has been under attack since dawn, the BBC's Robert Kiptoo reports from the capital, Nairobi.

The death toll has risen to 15 people, according to local media and the Kenya Red Cross, our reporter says.

Anne Soy
BBC News

Speaking to the BBC, al-Shabab's spokesman Ali Mohamud Rage, who is also known as Ali Dhere, said the militants released 15 Muslims and that Kenyans will be shocked when they eventually go into Garissa University College.

Al-Shabab says it separated Muslims from non-Muslims and killed many people. The UK and Australia had warned of potential terror attacks in parts of the country including Garissa.

An unnamed eyewitness told Kenya's Citizen TV that many students, in their panic, ran towards the gunmen when the attack began at about 05:00 local time: "We heard some gunshots. We were sleeping... guys started jumping up and down, running for their lives.

"But it's unfortunate that where they were going to was where the gunshots were coming from. We went to the field, sat there and the gunshots continued and this made us run to the fence so we could get away... out of the school [compound]."

Image source, AP

Solomon Mugera
BBC Africa editor

Al-Shabab's statement has said that 15 Muslim students have been freed during its siege of Kenya's Garissa University College.

The campus, which is about 150km (90 miles) from the Somali border in north-eastern Kenya, is likely to have students from all round the country studying there - so many of them are likely to be non-Muslims.

It opened in 2013 and is part of Moi University, which is based in Rift Valley town of Eldoret.

These students from Garissa University College escaped from the campus when the gunmen attacked and sought refuge at a nearby house in the north-eastern Kenyan town.

Image source, AP

Journalist Alinoor Moulid Bosh tweeted, external earlier from Garissa: "First time I can hear drone overhead in #Garissa. #Garissaattack".

The Kenya Red Cross tweets, external: "The aircraft has just landed in #Garissa in preparation to airlift critical casualties to #Nairobi #GarissaAttack".

The Kenya National Disaster Operation Centre tweets, external about the university siege: "65 injured have been received by the Garissa Level 5 Hospital from the #GarissaAttack. Tracing of next of kin being done by @KenyaRedCross".

Mary Harper
BBC News

tweets, external, about the Kenyan university attack, that the Somali militant group al-Shabab has said the "#Kenyan security forces only knew about the attack after it let the Muslim students leave the university #GarissaAttack"