A female student has been shot and killed on a university campus in Jordan, according to the General Security Directorate.
In a statement on Thursday, it said an assailant fired shots at a female at a university in the Jordanian capital, Amman. The victim was transported to a hospital in critical condition and was pronounced dead shortly after her arrival.
An investigation has been launched to arrest and determine the identity of the attacker, who fled the scene and remains at large.
Local media reports identified the victim as Iman Rashid, a 21-year-old nursing student at the Applied Sciences University.
Local media outlet Nabaa cited witnesses as saying shots were heard near the nursing department shortly after the victim left an examination hall where she had completed a test.
Local media reported the assailant entered the premises through the main gate and later left without being stopped by security guards.
Iman’s father, Mufeed Rashid, told the Al-Arabiya media outlet his daughter was an innocent victim.
“She didn’t do anything,” he said. “This is unfair … for what reason was the girl murdered? He [the gunman] needs to be punished appropriately as per the magnitude of the crime.”
The victim’s family said they do not know the assailant, or why he carried out the attack.
The university’s director was quoted by Al-Arabiya as saying that the institution was cooperating with the authorities to help track down the attacker. He added that surveillance cameras on campus recorded the incident.
The attack triggered an uproar on social media in Jordan and the region.
One Twitter user expressed anger towards the university.
She wrote: “You take a lot of money to provide us with ‘services’ and we naturally assumed that one of those very basic services was security. Where are your security guards? How can an armed psycho enter the campus casually?”
In a statement on Thursday, it said an assailant fired shots at a female at a university in the Jordanian capital, Amman. The victim was transported to a hospital in critical condition and was pronounced dead shortly after her arrival.
An investigation has been launched to arrest and determine the identity of the attacker, who fled the scene and remains at large.
Local media reports identified the victim as Iman Rashid, a 21-year-old nursing student at the Applied Sciences University.
Local media outlet Nabaa cited witnesses as saying shots were heard near the nursing department shortly after the victim left an examination hall where she had completed a test.
Local media reported the assailant entered the premises through the main gate and later left without being stopped by security guards.
Iman’s father, Mufeed Rashid, told the Al-Arabiya media outlet his daughter was an innocent victim.
“She didn’t do anything,” he said. “This is unfair … for what reason was the girl murdered? He [the gunman] needs to be punished appropriately as per the magnitude of the crime.”
The victim’s family said they do not know the assailant, or why he carried out the attack.
‘Killed in cold blood’
The university issued a statement, published on local news website Roya, promising to take legal measures to “prosecute everyone who caused this painful incident until they receive a just retribution for their heinous crime”.The university’s director was quoted by Al-Arabiya as saying that the institution was cooperating with the authorities to help track down the attacker. He added that surveillance cameras on campus recorded the incident.
The attack triggered an uproar on social media in Jordan and the region.
One Twitter user expressed anger towards the university.
She wrote: “You take a lot of money to provide us with ‘services’ and we naturally assumed that one of those very basic services was security. Where are your security guards? How can an armed psycho enter the campus casually?”
