Explosions and gunfire have rocked the American University of Afghanistan in Kabul, as armed men attacked the campus, according to an official and a student, reports Reuters.
“Several gunmen attacked the American University in Kabul and there are reports of gunfire and explosions,” the official said on Wednesday.
“The attackers are inside the compound and there are foreign professors along with hundreds of students.”
Dozens of soldiers cordoned off the area after the attack started on Wednesday evening when the elite private university is usually packed with students, many of them working professionals doing part-time courses at the facility.
The Italian-run Emergency Hospital in Kabul tweeted that at least five wounded people had been brought to the facility for treatment after the attack.
Ahmad Shaheer, a student at the university, told the Reuters news agency that he was trapped inside the university.
“We are stuck inside our classroom and there are bursts of gunfire,” he said.
No group has so far claimed responsibility for the attack, which comes as the Taliban step up their summer fighting season against the Western-backed Kabul government.
The attack came after two professors at the university – an American and Australian – were kidnapped in the heart of the capital earlier this month, the latest in a series of abductions of foreigners in the conflict-torn country.
The management of the elite American University of Afghanistan, which opened in 2006 and caters to more than 1,700 students, was not immediately reachable for comment.
