BAKU, Oct 4 (Sputnik) One civilian has died and four others were wounded in the Azerbaijani city of Ganja as a result of Armenian shelling, the country’s Foreign Ministry said Sunday.

“1 civilian killed and 4 injured as the result of the missile strike by the #Armenia/n army on dense residential areas of #Ganja, the 2nd largest city of #Azerbaijan, 60 km away from the Armenian border. Evidence of heavy damage to the city,” the ministry said in a post on Twitter with photographs of a destroyed building.

In a correspondence with Sputnik earlier in the day, the Azerbaijani Defense Ministry denied reports that shelling from Nagorno-Karabakh forces destroyed a military airfield but instead said the shelling targeted civilian populations.

"The information disseminated by the Armenian side about the alleged shelling of military facilities in the city of Ganja is provocative and false. As a result of enemy fire, civilians, civilian infrastructure and ancient historical buildings have suffered,” Vagif Dargyakhly of the Defense Ministry's press service told Sputnik.

Earlier in the day, the unrecognized Nagorno-Karabakh Republic said that its Defense Army had attacked military facilities in Azerbaijan and destroyed a military airfield in the city of Ganja, in retaliation against shelling of the capital of Stepanakert.

Armenian Defense Ministry Spokeswoman Shushan Stepanyan, in turn, earlier declared that no fire from the Armenian side has been fired in Azerbaijan’s direction.

Fighting broke out between in the disputed region last Sunday, with both Armenia and Azerbaijan accusing each other of targeting civilians.

SPUTNIK ASN 1641/1714