The United Nations Security Council is to hold behind closed doors emergency talks concerning Nagorno-Karabakh, where fighting continued overnight on Monday, between Azeri and Armenian troops.

The BBC reports that Tuesday’s talks had been formally requested by Belgium, after heavy fighting broke out on Sunday in the region that lies within Azerbaijan, but has been under the control of ethnic Armenian forces since 1994.

As the decades-old conflict reignited, Armenian and Azeri forces clashed over the region of Nagorno-Karabakh for a second day on Monday. Both sides have accused each other of the attacks in which dozens have been killed or wounded.

The BBC reports Azerbaijani military officials having said that over 550 Armenian troops have been ‘destroyed’, including those wounded. Armenia, meanwhile, has denied the claim.

The clashes have raised fears of a full-blown war between the two former Soviet republics.

Umm Muhammed Umar