The American University of Afghanistan is under attack from militants, American University’s president has confirmed. ABC News is reporting that at least two people have been killed, five injured.

CBS News first reported, “Witnesses say they heard gunshots, then a blast, and many believe it was the gate blown open, letting the attackers inside.”

An Afghan interior ministry official, quoted by the Times of India, says, “Several gunman attacked the American University in Kabul and there are reports of gunfire and explosions. They are inside the compound and there are foreign professors along with hundreds of students.” However, according to the Telegraph, a police spokesman Sediq Sediqqi says police believe there is just one assailant.”

CBS News’ Ahmad Mukhtar, who was at the university when the assault was launched, tweeted:

#AUAF under attack. I along with my friends escaped and several other of of my friends and professors trapped inside.

— Ahmad Mukhtar (@AhMukhtar) August 24, 2016

A student who didn’t get out told AFP by phone,”We are stuck inside my class with other students, I heard explosions and gunfire is going on close by.”

Also trapped was Pulitzer Prize-winning Associated Press photographer Massoud Hossaini who tweeted a terrifying plea for help from inside the school.

Help we are stuck inside AUAF and shooting flollowed by Explo this maybe my last tweets

— Massoud Hossaini (@Massoud151) August 24, 2016

Thankfully, Hossaini was later able to escape, telling the AP, “I went to the window to see what was going on, and I saw a person in normal clothes outside. He shot at me and shattered the glass.” Hossaini fell on the glass, cutting his hands. Eventually Hossaini and about nine other students managed to escape the campus through a northern emergency gate.

“As we were running I saw someone lying on the ground face down, they looked like they had been shot in the back.”

This attack comes two weeks after two university staff were kidnapped from their car by unknown gunmen. Their whereabouts remain unknown.

Please join The Stream in praying for the safety and protection of all the students, faculty and staff at #AUAF in this dire hour.