Gunman kills 13 people in Azeri university rampage

Thirteen people were killed at a university in Azerbaijan yesterday when a gunman went from floor to floor firing on teachers and students after the bell rang for morning classes.

The gunman, a Georgian citizen of Azeri origin, was among the dead.

The government said it did not see a political motive behind the shooting at the prestigious State Oil Academy in Baku, capital of the mainly Muslim former Soviet republic which exports oil and gas to Europe.

Blood stained the steps to the university and paramedics carried out bodies in bags. Thirteen people were also injured. "He climbed from the first floor to the sixth, shooting people mainly in the head with a Makarov pistol," the state prosecutor's office said. One witness said a student had tried to stop the gunman, approaching him and shouting: "Don't shoot, don't shoot!"

Police found three ammunition belts and 71 bullets on the body of the gunman, who shot himself. He was reportedly 29 years old and had left his family in Russia, after falling out with his father, and gone to Baku looking for work.