Afghanistan's Karzai escorted to safety after gunfire

KABUL, Sep 9 (Reuters) Afghan President Hamid Karzai broke off from a speech and was escorted safely away from a ceremony at Kabul's sports arena today after shots were fired outside the stadium, a defence ministry spokesman said.

State television showed Karzai, who has survived several assassination attempts by suspected Taliban members, being led from the stadium by his US-trained bodyguards.

A government official told the audience to be calm, saying that what they had heard were not gunshots but stones being thrown by people who could not get into the heavily guarded arena.

However, defence ministry spokesman Zahir Azimi said shots were fired outside the stadium, though he did not know by whom or whether there were any casualties.

''Yes, shots were fired. The president is safe,'' he said.

Some witnesses said police had fired in the air to disperse those who wanted to force their way into the stadium, but there was no word of any casualties.

The ceremony was held to mark the sixth anniversary of the killing of Ahmad Shah Masood, the military leader of an anti-Taliban alliance, by a suspected al Qaeda suicide bomber two days before the Sept 11 attacks on the United States.

As Karzai was making his speech, a bodyguard stepped up and spoke to the president, TV showed. Karzai then walked away from the podium, asking his bodyguard, ''What is the story?''.

People ran for cover thinking there had been an attack, a Reuters journalist at the scene said.

An estimated 25,000 people, including cabinet members and foreign diplomats, had gathered at the stadium, which is not far from the presidential palace.

Violence has escalated in Afghanistan in recent months. The United Nations said today that 103 suicide attacks were carried out between January and the end of April this year, a record.

REUTERS PD BST1430