13 Dead In Azerbaijan University Shooting

At least 13 people were killed in a shooting Thursday, April 30, at a university in Baku, capital of Azerbaijan, Russia's Interfax news agency reported.

Governmental officials and prosecutors said another 10 people were wounded in the shooting at the Azerbaijan State Oil Academy.

Latest reports said there was only one killer who shot down the victims, Interfax reported, citing a local ANS television channel.

The killer was identified as Nadir Shirhanoglu, a Georgian citizen of Azeri origin.

During the shooting spree Shirhanoglu killed a security guard, several janitors, professors and students, including two foreigners. He then committed suicide.

The ANS TV channel reported earlier that two gunmen opened fire at staff and students of the Azerbaijan State Oil Academy, while going upstairs of the academy building.

Other reports said one gunman died by suicide while the other held hostages.

Police have cordoned off the university building. Special troops that rushed to the scene earlier have left.

An investigation into the shooting is underway.

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A young man armed with an automatic pistol and clips of ammunition rampaged through a prestigious institute in the Azerbaijani capital Thursday, killing 12 people and wounding others before killing himself as police closed in, the government said.
Little is known about the gunman and even less about the motive for the bloodshed that shook the faculty and students of the Azerbaijan State Oil Academy, a noted school whose graduates have included future presidents and tycoons.

The suspect, Farda Gadyrov, entered the Azerbaijan State Oil Academy in Baku and climbed five floors of the building, shooting everyone he met along the way, according to a joint statement from the Interior Ministry and state prosecutors.

Gadyrov, a Georgian citizen born in 1980, then shot and killed himself with the gun, a Makarov pistol, when he saw police approaching, the statement said. It said he had three magazines of ammunition.

The statement gave no motive for the attack in Azerbaijan, a country at the crossroads of western Asia and Eastern Europe, with Russia, Georgia, Armenia and Iran at its borders.
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The shooting spree follows a random shooting by a Moscow police major on Monday of this week. Three people were shot dead and six injured at Moscow’s Ostrov supermarket on April 28, 2009.


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