Grenade Attack on Church Kills 2 in Eastern Kenya

Two people were killed in a grenade attack on a church in eastern Kenya, residents said Sunday, amid a spate of violence that has raised concerns for Kenya's key tourism industry.

"They attacked people who reside in the church compound," in Garissa, said a worshipper belonging to the town's East African Pentecostal Church. "Two people died and the others have been taken to hospital."

Three devices in all were thrown or planted on Saturday night, but the other two did not detonate, according to residents of Garissa, which hosts a large military base.

Residents said at least two people were hospitalized with injuries from the blast, with some putting the figure at four.

"The grenade was thrown into a small house on the edge of the compound ... and two people were killed," a journalist from Garissa told Agence France Presse.

"There was also a second grenade thrown at the watchman at the gate, but it didn't explode and a third device -- a bomb -- was found opposite the gates of the military camp in the town center and it was removed and detonated by the military," he said.

"People are not venturing out to pray for the (Muslim feast of) Eid al-Adha as there are too many security personnel moving around," the journalist said, adding that security personnel have been searching the town for explosives for the past week.

"Local government people say they're carrying out investigations, but they haven't announced anything yet," a resident told AFP.

Garissa is some 330 kilometres (200 miles) northeast of Nairobi and around 70 kilometres from the Dadaab camp for refugees from Somalia's civil war where a police truck escorting a U.N. convoy struck a landmine on Saturday. The device did not detonate.

Banditry is commonplace in the region but landmines are rare.

Dadaab, about 80 kilometres from the Somali border, was opened more than 20 years ago.

The spate of attacks, including one on Swiss tourists on Friday, could deal a blow to Kenya's tourism industry which has only just recovered from the impact of post-election violence in 2008.

Over the past two months Kenya has sent troops into Somalia, seen four foreigners kidnapped from areas close to the Somali border and suffered two grenade attacks in the capital Nairobi.

Kenyan authorities have linked the grenade attacks and kidnappings to Somali Shebab Islamists.