A foreign journalist has been injured as a result of shelling of the Holy Saviour Cathedral by Azerbaijani forces in Shushi, a town in Nagorno-Karabakh, Armenian Defence Ministry said Thursday.
Artsrun Hovhannisyan, a representative of the Armenian Ministry of Defence, said the injured journalist had been taken to a hospital.
The Armenian Unified Infocenter confirmed the development, saying that several local and foreign journalists were injured in the incident. Editor-in-Chief of Segodnya.ru Yuriy Kotenok was seriously injured in the shelling, the outlet stated, adding that he is currently undergoing surgery for his wounds.
Earlier, the Armenian Unified Information Centre said that the Azerbaijani Armed Forces had struck the Ghazanchetsots Cathedral, the city's main church, which was built in the 19th century and restored in the 1990s. The Azerbaijani Defence Ministry said that the country's armed forces were not targeting historical, cultural, or religious buildings.
The hostilities in Azerbaijan's breakaway region of Nagorno-Karabakh erupted on 27 September when both sides blamed each other for violating the ceasefire.
Armenia and Nagorno-Karabakh said that Azerbaijan had launched an offensive on the Armenian-majority breakaway region, and both declared martial law and mobilisation. Azerbaijan has also declared martial law and partial mobilisation.