Militants who stormed a university in Iraq this morning and took students hostages have withdrawn.
Dozens of students were seized in the attack at Anbar University near the provincial capital Ramadi.
But the students fled the scene and boarded buses before gunfire erupted between the gunmen and security forces, officials said.
Three police guards who tried to stop the gunmen at the university gate were killed, according to reports.
Ahmed al-Mehamdi, a student who was taken hostage, said he awoke to the crackle of gunfire.
He said he looked out of the window and saw armed men dressed in black racing across the campus.
Minutes later, the gunmen entered the dormitory and ordered everybody to stay in their rooms, he said.
In a phone interview from inside the dormitory, he said: "The gunmen took some students to other university buildings. For the rest of us, we are still trapped in our rooms and everybody is in panic, especially the Shiite students."
An al Qaida splinter group known as the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) and other Sunni-led militants have controlled parts of Anbar province, including the city of Fallujah and parts of Ramadi, since late December.
Iraq is currently grappling with its worst surge in violence since the sectarian bloodletting of 2006 and 2007, when the country was pushed to the brink of civil war despite the presence of tens of thousands of US troops.
Parts of Ramadi have been held by militants and gunmen for months.
The latest violence has been fuelled by Sunni Muslim anger at the Shiite-led government in Baghdad, as well as the civil war in neighbouring Syria.
