Kenyan troops killed two gunmen from a gang of fighters from Somalia's Shebab Islamists who stormed a university today and seized hostages, the interior ministry said.
"Two terrorists have been neutralised in the ongoing operation, security agencies intensify rescue operation," the interior ministry said in a statement.
Heavy gunfire and shouts from inside the building where hostages were believed to be held were heard by journalists with the Kenyan troops.
At least 15 people have been killed and 65 wounded in the attack.
Kenyan media reported the same number, including the bodies counted at the mortuary and hospital in the northeastern town of Garissa.
The interior ministry said one of the suspected gunmen was arrested as he tried to flee.
Somalia's al-Shabaab Islamist group claimed responsibility for the attack, saying it had released Muslims while killing some Christians and taking others hostage.
"We sorted people out and released the Muslims," Sheikh Abdiasis Abu Musab, al Shabaab's military operations spokesman, told Reuters news agency.
"There are many dead bodies of Christians inside the building. We are also holding many Christians alive. Fighting still goes on inside the college", he added.
The Kenya National Disaster Operation Centre said the number injured during the attack has risen to 65.
Police and soldiers earlier surrounded and sealed off Garissa University College and were attempting to flush out the gunmen, the head of Kenya's police force Joseph Boinet said in a statement.
"The attackers shot indiscriminately while inside the university compound," he said.
A policeman at the scene said some students had been taken hostage.
"We can't tell how many but they are many since the college was in session", he said.
Somali Islamist militant group al-Shabaab, which has links to al-Qaeda, has in the past carried out attacks in Garissa, which lies around 200km from the Somali border, and in other parts of Kenya.
Grace Kai, a student at the neighbouring Garissa Teachers Training College, said there had been warnings that an attack could be imminent.
"Some strangers had been spotted in Garissa town and were suspected to be terrorists," she told Reuters news agency.
"Then on Monday our college principal told us ... that strangers had been spotted in our college.
"On Tuesday we were released to go home, and our college closed, but the campus remained in session, and now they have been attacked."
Al-Shabaab, which was responsible for a deadly attack in 2013 on the upscale Westgate shopping mall in Nairobi, has declared it will punish Kenya for sending troops into Somalia alongside African Union peacekeepers to fight the group.
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