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A rocket hit a residential area in Ganja, Azerbaijan’s second-largest city, today, a resident of which told Agence France-Presse that he saw at least seven victims being pulled out of the rubble of a house.
More than 12 dead and 40 injured
At least 12 people were killed and more than 40 injured, while “civilian infrastructure and vehicles were seriously damaged” by the “rocket attack on civilians,” the country’s prosecutor’s office told Russia’s Sputnik news agency.
The Turkish news agency Anadolu reports that children are among the victims (photos from the Twitter account of Hikmat Hadjiev, adviser to the President of Azerbaijan)
According to APE, the coup came just hours after Stepanakert, the capital of the Nagorno-Karabakh enclave of Nagorno-Karabakh, controlled by Armenian separatists, became the target of heavy bombardment.
The city has been repeatedly bombed since hostilities between Turkish-backed separatist forces in the enclave and Turkish-backed Azerbaijani forces resumed on September 27. 
The bombings have turned it into a ghost town, since most of its inhabitants have abandoned it.
Damaged house
In Ganza, journalists from the French Agency saw a property damaged by a rocket, which hit it around 03:00 (local time; midnight from Friday to Saturday Greek time).
Top left, the city of Ganja affected by the rocket attack and on the right the strategically important city of Mingechevir
Dozens of rescuers searched the wreckage for barefoot survivors overnight.
According to the inhabitants of the city, more than twenty people lived in the building that was hit by the rocket.
A resident said he saw a child, two women and four men being pulled out of the rubble, with some of the victims mutilated. 
“One woman lost both legs.” Someone lost an arm, “said Elmir Sirinzadai, a 26-year-old resident.
“The houses were destroyed”
“Innocent civilians in Azerbaijan’s second largest city are under attack with indiscriminate and selective Armenian missiles,” tweeted Hikmat Hadziyev, adviser to the Azerbaijani president.
“Immoral calls for a humanitarian ceasefire should see these #Armenia war crimes.” According to initial information, more than 20 houses were destroyed, “Hadziyev added.
Innocent civilians in the second largest city of Azerbaijan are under indiscriminate and targeted missile attack from Armenia. Unscrupulous calls for a humanitarian ceasefire should see these war crimes from #Armenia. According to initial information, more than 20 houses destroyed. pic.twitter.com/fznh82kqur
– Hikmet Hajev (@HikmetHajev) October 16, 2020
AFP reporters in the nearby town of Mingchevir, about an hour’s drive north of Ganja, said they heard a powerful explosion that shook the building around the same time.
Mingchevir is protected by missile systems because it has a strategic infrastructure: a hydroelectric plant. 
It is unclear if the rockets were destroyed in flight or if only the city was hit by this stage. 
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