MOGADISHU (REUTERS) - Somali Al-Shabaab militants said they were still holding many hostages inside a Kenyan university campus, nearly two hours after Interior Minister Joseph Nkaissery said the siege was nearing its end.

"We still control the scene and have many hostages," Abdiasis Abu Musab, Al-Shabaab's military operations spokesman, told Reuters without giving exact figures.

"Lying around us are also dead bodies, many more than the dead bodies that were carried out," Musab added.

Nkaissery earlier said at least 70 people had been killed and 79 wounded in the attack on the campus on the northeastern town of Garissa.