Africa

Kenya university stampede kills one, injures more than 100

Electrical explosion ‘prompts fears of terror attack’ at University of Nairobi campus

A burial service for a victim of the attack on Garissa University College on 2nd Apirl 2015: On Sunday, an electrical explosion at a University of Nairobi campus promted a stampede amid heighten tension and fear of a similar terror attack, a university official said. Photograph: EPA/DAI KUROKAWA
A burial service for a victim of the attack on Garissa University College on 2nd Apirl 2015: On Sunday, an electrical explosion at a University of Nairobi campus promted a stampede amid heighten tension and fear of a similar terror attack, a university official said. Photograph: EPA/DAI KUROKAWA
Sun Apr 12 2015 - 12:42

A Kenyan student died and over 100 others were injured after an electricity transformer explosion caused a stampede on Sunday, amid tension a week after gunmen stormed another university campus, officials said.

The student who died was among others who jumped from residence halls as high as five floors up, fearing the University of Nairobi's Kikuyu campus had come under attack, university vice chancellor Peter Mbithi said.

Gunmen from the al Qaeda-aligned group al Shabaab stormed Garissa University College, about 200 km from the Somali border, killing 148 people on April 2nd.

“We have lost one male student who fell from fifth floor,” Mbithi said outside the accidents and emergency section of the country’s main public hospital, Kenyatta National.

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Witnesses said the transformer blew up after 4 am local time, setting off terrified screams from the women’s wing of a dormitory. The panic spread to the men’s wing, where students woke up and scrambled to get out.

Reuters