Two French and two Armenian journalists have been injured in Nagorno-Karabakh, where heavy fighting between Armenian and Azerbaijani forces this week marked the biggest escalation in years of a decades-old conflict.

Two Le Monde reporters were wounded on Thursday in the town of Martuni, the newspaper said.

Armenia’s Foreign Ministry said they were being taken to hospital, and accused Azerbaijan of bombarding the Martuni region, in eastern Nagorno-Karabakh.

A cameraman with the Armenia TV channel and a reporter with the Armenian 24News outlet also sustained injuries in the Martuni shelling, Armenian officials said.

It was unclear how badly the four journalists were hurt. A Russian journalist with the independent Dozhd TV channel was reported to have safely reached a bomb shelter.

French President Emmanuel Macron told reporters on arrival at a European Union summit in Brussels that a plane was ready to repatriate the two injured French journalists.

Later on Thursday, Azerbaijan’s Foreign Ministry official Twitter account retweeted a post claiming that international journalists were under attack by Armenian forces, referring to shelling by Armenia on the Azerbaijani city Terter, about 90km (56 miles) from Nagorno-Karabakh. In that attack, Azerbaijan’s prosecutor general’s office said one civilian was killed.

DHAKA/FN/02-10-2020