24 students in hospital after terrorist attack on Kenyan university

Kenyatta National Hospital in Nairobi, Kenya, has received 24 students wounded in a terrorist attack Friday afternoon and is still expecting another 10. Doctors said all the students are in stable condition and two have been discharged.

Members of the Taiwan based Buddhist Compassion Relief Tzu Chi Foundation visited the students on Friday and provided the students daily necessities including bottled water and soapafter consulting the hospital on what the students needed.

Seventeen of the injured students were kept in a ward in a hospital in Nairobi, capital of Kenya. In the ward, 10 were boys and seven girls.

Busy doctors and nurses entered and exited the tense ward. One male student could be seen sitting up and speaking with family while the majority lied quietly in their beds on (Friday evening?). Two female students could also be heard groaning in pain.

All of the 24 injured students were brought to the hospital from a university in Kenya's Northeastern town of Garissa on Thursday evening, which was attacked by Al-Shabab gunmen early that morning. The attack killed 147 and injured at least another 79.

"The situation of all the patients here, we can say, is stable," said Christopher Kibiwott, the doctor in charge of the ward, adding they have done operations on four students with fractures and two students with serious conditions have become stable.

He said psychiatrists talked with students after they arrived at the hospital.

The hospital is still expecting 10 more students from Garissa. Kibiwott said the hospital has enough beds for the students and currently they don't need help from the outsiders.

A female doctor who didn't disclose her name said two students have already been discharged.

Family members of all injured the students have arrived at the hospital, but visitors are forbidden from entering the ward. Guards have locked the gate and only family members or visitors led by hospital employees are allowed in.

Al-Shabab gunmen, armed with AK 47's, launched an attack on a university in Garissa early Thursday morning. The men took dozens of hostages in a dormitory. Kenyan officers managed to end the situation after about 13 hours. Four terrorists, strapped with explosives, were killed by Kenyan officers.

Al-Shabab spokesman Ali Mohamud Rage said fighters from the Somalia-based extremist group were responsible. The al-Qaida-linked group has launched a series of attacks in Kenya, including the one at the Westgate Mall in Nairobi in 2013 which claimed 67 lives.

houliqiang@chinadaily.com.cn