Gunman kills eight colleagues in ministry

A DISGRUNTLED Education Ministry employee opened fire at colleagues at a ministry office in Lebanon yesterday, killing eight people and wounding five before he was apprehended

Police dismissed any sectarian motives and said a financial dispute was behind the shooting. But others, noting the gunman was Muslim and most of his victims Christian, questioned whether religious divisions contributed to the violence.

Police said the gunman, identified as Ahmed Mansour, began firing in the air and then turned his gun on people in the offices of the fund in Beirut, a department of the Education Ministry. He was being held at a police station yesterday.