Pakistani security forces take up positions on a road leading to the Army Public School that is under attack by Taliban gunmen in Peshawar (Reuters photo)
Six Taliban suicide bombers who killed over 120 people, mostly students, at an army-run school in Peshawar in north-west Pakistan, are dead, officials said. Students and teachers were held hostage in the college section of the Army Public School and College, reports said.
Here are the latest developments:
Nearly seven hours after they attacked the school at around 11 am, six attackers were reportedly dead as Pakistani soldiers surrounded the building and began an operation to rescue students still inside. More than 80 children have been injured.
A witness said, "I saw six or seven people walking class to class and opening fire on children." There were reports of gruesome killings and the Taliban gunmen using children as human shields.
Senior officials said early in the evening after an aerial survey of the school that three blocks that make up the junior school had been cleared by the troops and "remaining clearance is in progress."
The Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan said six of its suicide bombers had attacked the school. Its spokesman Muhammad Khorasani said, "They have been ordered to shoot the older students but not the children." He also said, "We selected the army's school for the attack because the government is targeting our families and females...We want them to feel the pain."
Doctors at the Lady Reading Hospital in Peshawar said many of those injured were in critical condition. They said many had been shot in head. The hospital has reported a shortage of blood and has sought blood donations urgently.
At the school, heavy gunfire and multiple blasts were reportedly heard from inside the school. Helicopters swooped overhead and a fleet of ambulances ferried wounded children to hospital.
The six armed attackers in military uniform entered the school from a graveyard and through the rear gate. A teacher said the attackers targeted the school while exams were taking place.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi tweeted "It is a senseless act of unspeakable brutality that has claimed lives of the most innocent of human beings - young children in their school." Home Minister Rajnath Singh tweeted, "I strongly condemn the terrorist attack on a school at Peshwar (Pakistan). This dastardly and inhuman attack exposes the real face of terrorism."
Pakistan's Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif has left for Peshawar as has Army chief Raheel Sharif. Opposition leader Imram Khan whose party the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf governs Khyber Pakhtunkhwa is also headed to Peshawar.
The school on Peshawar's Warsak Road is part of the Army Public Schools and Colleges System, which runs 146 schools nationwide for the children of military personnel and civilians. Its students range in age from around 10 to 18.
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