Gunmen attack Kabul's American University of Afghanistan

By Euronews

Published on 24/08/2016 - 17:57

Explosions and gunfire have been heard on the campus of the American University of Afghanistan in Kabul with a government official saying several gunmen have launched an attack.

Several gunmen have attacked the American University of Afghanistan in Kabul, an Afghan interior ministry official and several students on campus said.

Explosions and gunfire have been heard.

The interior ministry official said many people were trapped inside: “They are inside the compound and there are foreign professors along with hundreds of students.”

Ahmad Shaheer, a student at the university, told Reuters by telephone: “We are stuck inside our classroom and there are bursts of gunfire.”

#AUAF under attack. I along with my friends escaped and several other of of my friends and professors trapped inside.
— Ahmad Mukhtar (@AhMukhtar) August 24, 2016

Car bomb attack

New York Times reporter Mujib Masah quoted a police officer at the scene as saying a car bomb had been detonated in front of a school for the blind, which is next to the American University, attackers then entered that school, and fired at the American University from there.

The blast is also understood to have demolished part of the wall allowed gunmen to enter.

The Associated Press news agency spoke to one of its photographers who was attending a class at the university when the attack occured.

Massoud Hossaini told the AP he was in a classroom with 15 students when he heard an explosion on the southern flank of the campus.

“I went to the window to see what was going on, and I saw a person in normal clothes outside. He shot at me and shattered the glass,” Hossaini said.

He and the others were later able to escape from the campus.

At least one student was killed and 14 wounded in the attack according to the head of Kabul’s hospitals, Mohammad Saleem Rasouly.

Afghan TV station TOLOnews reported security forces quickly cordoned off the area and tweeted a picture that showed smoke rising over the university campus.