Two French journalists working for the French daily Le Monde have been seriously wounded in the fighting in Azerbaijan’s breakaway region of Nagorno-Karabakh, officials said on October 1.
President Emmanuel Macron said the French Foreign Ministry was working to organize the journalists’ repatriation “as quickly as possible.”
"A medical plane is ready to leave. We are doing everything to stabilize the wounded on the spot before allowing their evacuation," Macron said as he arrived in Brussels for a European Union summit.
However, the Nagorno-Karabakh region's foreign ministry said the two French journalists, in critical condition, had been operated on by local doctors and would be transported to the Armenian capital, Yerevan.
SEE ALSO: France, U.S., Russia Issue Joint Call For Peace As Fighting Rages In Nagorno-KarabakhArmenia’s Foreign Ministry said that the two reporters were badly wounded in shelling by Azerbaijani forces in the town of Martuni. The ministry said that two Armenian journalists were also hit in the shelling.
Le Monde had earlier confirmed that a reporter and photographer working for the daily had been injured in a bombing by Azerbaijani forces.
Le Monde Chief Editor Luc Bronner told Reuters that a reporter and photographer had been wounded, but did not name the two.
AFP correspondents at the scene reported that several journalists were interviewing residents in Martuni and assessing damage from previous shelling when the bombing started.
The Azerbaijani side neither confirmed nor rejected the report.
Dozens of people have been killed and scores wounded in the heavy fighting between troops from Azerbaijan and ethnic Armenian forces that began on September 27.
Azerbaijan and Armenia have defied international calls for a cease-fire in the new escalation of the long-simmering conflict over the territory.