A 28-year-old math teacher at a private high school in Baku was severely wounded in a school shooting on Friday, the Azerbaijani Interior Ministry reported. The alleged shooter was a 10th grade student who had showed up at the school with his father’s hunting rifle.
The pro-government media outlet APA said the teacher was taken to hospital and was awaiting surgery as of Friday morning.
The shooting reportedly occurred during a lesson earlier in the morning. It is unclear if the teacher was directly targeted by the student or if there were others involved in the incident.
APA reported later that the alleged shooter had been detained and a criminal investigation opened into the incident. The motivations for the shooting are unknown.
School shootings are very rare in Azerbaijan, although not unheard of. In 2009, a student at the State Oil Academy killed 12 people and injured 13 others in a campus shooting spree before turning the gun on himself.
Nate Ostiller
