DEATHS IN AZERI UNIVERSITY SHOOTING
Al-Jazeera
news/europe/2009/04/200943071838953121.html
April 30 2009
Qatar
At least 13 people are reported to have been killed after armed men
opened fire at a university in Azerbaijan.
Ten people were also wounded after two men shot at students at
the State Oil Academy in Baku, the capital, on Thursday, medical
sources said.
Local media reported that special forces had surrounded the university
building after the attacks were launched just after classes began at
9am (0400GMT).
Police special forces and ambulances rushed to the scene and access
roads were closed.
Mursal Gamidov, the head of the Baku ambulance service, said that one
of the assailants had committed suicide, but this was not corroborated
by the government.
Gamidov said that it appeared one gunman was a student of the academy.
Bekir Belek, a Turkish student, said from a hospital in Baku: "We
were in an exam, we heard gunshots, we went out of the classroom in
panic and saw a gunman opening fire on everyone, three of my friends
were shot."
"Everywhere was covered in blood, all corridors. There are many
wounded," Belek said.
"We were trying to escape but had to return when my friends were shot,
we took them to hospital."
Al Jazeera’s Matthew Collin, in Tblisi, the capital of neighbouring
Georgia, said the motive for the shootings was unknown.
Oil and gas-producing Azerbaijan, a largely Muslim ex-Soviet Republic
that borders Russia, is officially at war with neighbouring Armenia
but there has been no recent incidents of violence over relations
between the two nations.