Kenya's cities 'will run red with blood,' warn Al Shabaab

Al Shabaab militants have threatened further attacks after Thursday’s university campus massacre, ominously announcing that the country’s cities ‘will run red with blood’.

‘No amount of precaution or safety measures will be able to guarantee your safety, thwart another attack or prevent another bloodbath from occurring in your cities," warned a statement released by the Somali Islamist group added.

Officials claim that Kenyan police have made five arrests in connection to Thursday’s al-Shabab attack in eastern Kenya which left almost 150 people dead.

The ministry for internal security said that some of the suspects had been arrested while trying to flee to neighbouring Somalia.

At least 148 people - mostly students - were killed when gunmen attacked a university campus in Garissa on Thursday. The militant group said its attacks were in retaliation for acts by Kenya's security forces, forming part of the African Union's military mission in Somalia against al-Shabab.

One 19-year-old girl, found hiding in a cupboard on Saturday, was so terrified that security officials had to bring in a teacher to convince her that it was safe for her to leave her hiding place.

Four other people, including two suspects, were found alive on the campus on Friday. One suspect is said to be a Tanzanian national with no known links to the university.

Local mortuaries had been overwhelmed by the influx of bodies, necessitating the remains of the victims to be flown to Nairobi for identification. Many of the student victims came from other parts of the country.

Red cross workers told news media that the process of identifying the victims was further impeded by the fact that they often had to reconstruct bodies because of multiple gunshot wounds, before bringing in family members for identification. Some victims had been beheaded, they added.

There has been criticism in Garissa, which is 150km (100 miles) from the Somali border, at how the security services dealt with the attack. Only two guards were on duty at the time of the assault, in spite of official warnings that an attack on an institution of higher learning was imminent.

One survivor said the students had raised security issues late last year. Another said the gunmen appeared to know the site well.