One Student Dead, Over 140 Injured in Kenya University Stampede
TEHRAN (Tasnim) – One student was killed and 141 injured in the Kenyan capital of Nairobi on Sunday after an electricity transformer explosion caused a stampede.
The incident happened at the University of Nairobi after students mistook the accidental explosion for a terrorist attack, a university official said.
Peter Mbithi, Vice Chancellor of the University of Nairobi, told the AP that a male third-year student died and the injured have been taken to hospitals.
Speaking outside the Kenyatta National public hospital in the capital, Mbithi said the student who died fell from the fifth floor.
Kenyan newspaper the Daily Nation reported that some students jumped from as high as the sixth floor of their dorms and many suffered serious injuries.
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.
It came ten days after 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 2.
