Jordanian police hunt for gunman after woman shot dead at university campus

Force launches investigation to determine the culprit behind the fatal shooting in north Amman

A police vehicle is parked outside a military court in Amman. Reuters

An unidentified man shot dead a 21-year old female nursing student on Thursday at a university campus in Jordan's capital Amman, state media said.

State television said the woman was a second-year nursing student at the Applied Science Private University, situated in the northern part of the capital.

It said the assailant went through the main gate of the university brandishing a weapon and, after killing the woman, made his way out while firing into the air.

Other Jordanian media identified the woman as Iman Rashid.

A statement by the General Security Directorate said "one person fired several shots at a woman inside a university north of the capital" and then escaped.

It said an investigation was opened "to determine the identity of the shooter and arrest him".

State television later said the woman had died.

Crime in Jordan has been mounting in the past decade amid a declining economy. So-called honour killings have become an increasing problem, with Human Rights Watch estimating that between 15 to 20 such killings occur in the kingdom each year.

A similar campus murder shook Egypt this month.

Egyptian police on Monday arrested a student in Al Mansoura in connection with the killing of a female classmate outside the gates of the city's university. She had been violently stabbed to death in a public attack, prosecutors said.

The victim, who was enrolled in the faculty of arts, and her alleged attacker had arrived at the campus with a busload of students from nearby Mahalla.