Kenyan authorities have been consoling survivors as well as relatives of the victims of an al Shabaab attack on a property in Mandera County, which housed quarry workers.

Mandera County Commissioner Alex Nyoko has revealed that at least 14 people were killed in the attack which took place just about an hour after midnight on Wednesday. At least 11 people were injured in the attack - some of them are reported to have sustained life threatening injuries.

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Lily Koros, the CEO of Kenyatta National Hospital, has revealed that some of the injured people suffered bullet wounds to their heads and lower abdomen. At least one patient is also reported to have sustained a neck injury while attempting to flee the attackers, according to The Star.

The injured people were airlifted to a specialist medical center in the country's capital Nairobi on Wednesday morning. President Uhuru Kenyatta has since paid a visit to the victims of the attack. Meanwhile, local authorities have been visiting relatives of the deceased victims of the attack - a majority of them are reported to come from Nyeri County in central Kenya.

This is the second al Shabaab attack on quarry workers in Mandera County this year. The first attack left at least 36 people dead. Following this attack, which occurred near a Kenyan military camp, critics have lambasted the slow response of the security forces and questioned their ability to prevent such attacks in the town, which sits on the border between Kenya and Somalia.

However, Interior Cabinet Secretary Joseph Nkaissery has come to the defense of Kenya's security forces. He explained that the authorities had no prior information regarding the attack. "If we had prior intelligence on the planned attack we could have stopped it," he said. Nkaissery further revealed that the terrorists sneaked into the country with the aid of some collaborators.

He said the swift response by the police had ensured the survival of about 136 people who were also in the property.

It is unclear how many attackers were involved in the plot. Nyoko said the terrorists used an unidentified explosive device to blow up the gate of the home, before shooting indiscriminately at the scared people in the compound, who were attempting to flee. He revealed that the attackers fled past a dry river and escaped into the nearby bushes after being chased by the police, according to Daily Nation.

Authorities have speculated that the terrorists have since filtered back into Somalia. al Shabaab have since claimed responsibility for the attack, explaining that it is part of their Ramadan offensive against the Kenyan government and the country's Christian population, CNN reported.

Tagsal Shabaab Attack Mandera County, Somalia, Kenya, al-shabab, Mandera County