Death toll in Pakistani school attack rises to 126

             A Pakistani official says the death toll in a Taliban attack on a school in the northwestern city of Peshawar has risen to 126.

The information minister for the province, Mushtaq Ghani, says most of the dead in Tuesday's attack were students, children and teenagers, from the school.
The still-unfolding violence began in the morning hours, with about half a dozen gunmen entering the school. Two loud booms of unknown origin were heard coming from the scene in the early afternoon, as Pakistani troops exchanged fire with the attackers.


The Pakistani Taliban have claimed responsibility for the attack, the country's worst in more than a year.

This is breaking news. Check back for more details. An earlier version of the story follows.

Taliban gunmen stormed a military-run school in the northwestern Pakistani city of Peshawar on Tuesday, killing at least 84 people, officials said, in the worst attack to hit the country in over a year.

The overwhelming majority of the victims were students at the army public school, which has children and teenagers in grades 1-10.

The horrific violence, carried out by a relatively small number of militants from the Tehreek-e-Taliban group, a Pakistani militant group trying to overthrow the government, also sent dozens of wounded flooding into local hospitals as terrified parents searched for their children.

"My son was in uniform in the morning. He is in a casket now," wailed one parent, Tahir Ali, as he came to the hospital to collect the body of his 14-year-old son Abdullah. "My son was my dream. My dream has been killed."

The attack began in the morning hours, with about half a dozen gunmen entering the school — and shooting at random, said police officer Javed Khan. Army commandos quickly arrived at the scene and exchanged fire with the gunmen, he said. Students wearing their green school uniforms could be seen on Pakistani television fleeing the area.

Outside the school, shooting was initially heard along with one loud bang of unknown origin. Details were sketchy in the face of the overwhelming tragedy. Pakistani television showed soldiers surrounding the area and pushing people back. Ambulances streamed from the area to local hospitals.

Pervez Khattak, the chief minister of the province where Peshawar is located, said 84 died but that death toll could rise further in the unfolding drama.

A soldier escorts schoolchildren after they were rescued from the Army Public School that is under attack by Taliban gunmen in Peshawar, December 16, 2014. © Khuram Parvez/REUTERS A soldier escorts schoolchildren after they were rescued from the Army Public School that is under attack by Taliban gunmen in Peshawar, December 16, 2014.

Khattack said fighting was still underway in some parts of the school and that roughly the same number of students have been wounded. He said the 84 killed were all "children" but hospital officials earlier said at least one of the fatalities was a teacher and that one security official was also among the dead.

It wasn't clear how many students and staff were still inside the facility. A student who escaped and a police official on the scene earlier said at one point about two hundred students were being held hostage. Both declined to be identified because they were not authorized to speak about the situation.

One of the wounded students, Abdullah Jamal, said that he was with a group of 8th, 9th and 10th graders who were getting first-aid instructions and training with a team of Pakistani army medics when the violence began for real.

When the shooting started, Jamal, who was shot in the leg, said nobody knew what was going on in the first few seconds.

"Then I saw children falling down who were crying and screaming. I also fell down. I learned later that I have got a bullet," he said, speaking from his hospital bed.

Another student, Amir Mateen, said they locked the door from the inside when they heard the shooting but gunmen blasted through the door anyway and began shooting.

The school is located on the edge of a military cantonment in Peshawar, but the bulk of the students are civilian.

There was conflicting information about how many attackers carried out the violence, but it was a relatively small number.

Taliban spokesman Mohammed Khurasani claimed responsibility for the attack in a phone call to media, saying that six suicide bombers had carried out the attack in revenge for the killings of Taliban members at the hands of Pakistani authorities. But the chief minister said there were eight attackers, dressed in military uniforms. Two were killed by security forces and one blew himself up, Khattak said. The rest were still fighting.