Azerbaijani Police Say College Gunman Did Not Act Alone

The gun attack killed 12 people

BAKU (Reuters) -- Azerbaijan police said on May 4 the gunman who killed 12 people at Baku's State Oil Academy last week before shooting himself was not acting alone, and a second man has been arrested in connection with the attack.

The Interior Ministry and prosecutor-general accused Nadir Aliyev, who was arrested on May 1, of committing the crime with 29-year-old gunman Farda Gadirov, who killed himself at the scene as police closed in.

It also said Javidan Amirov, who was arrested on May 4, had been in regular telephone contact with Gadirov prior to the attack on the prestigious college.

"Armed, Aliyev went to the crime scene together with Gadirov and participated in committing the crime," the statement said.

Both Aliyev and Amirov are from the same part of neighbouring Georgia as Gadirov, who was a Georgian citizen of Azerbaijani origin.

No clear motive has been identified for the attack in the mainly Muslim former Soviet republic, which is a supplier of oil and gas to the West.

The attack sent shockwaves through the Caucasus country of 8.3 million people, which is tightly controlled by authorities under President Ilham Aliyev.

Several witnesses had described seeing two gunmen.

But statements at the time from the authorities had named only one man as responsible for the 12 deaths, saying he climbed from the first floor to the sixth, executing his victims mainly with shots to the head.

Thirteen people were wounded, and several remain in critical condition.