Updated 11:02 a.m. GMT
MOSCOW, December 16 (Sputnik) – At least 126 people have been confirmed killed, more than 100 of them students and up to 122 have been wounded in a Taliban attack on a Pakistani school where 500 students and teachers have been taken hostage in the city of Peshawar in northwestern Pakistan, Reuters quotes one provincial official as saying.
Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif has called the school massacre a national tragedy and is heading to Peshawar, according to Reuters.
Pakistan police say three explosions have been recently heard at the school.
A senior police official confirmed the death toll and warned it was likely to rise, saying a huge blast had occurred inside the school.
"Many are in the operation theatre now in critical condition, undergoing treatment," Reuters quotes hospital official Ejaz Khan as saying.
Kids! Sickening. MT @SkyNews Pics from school in #Peshawar, where #Taliban have killed >20 http://t.co/Es3PBHNfWI pic.twitter.com/aW3q3WsYwT
— Miriam Cosic (@MiriamCosic) 16 декабря 2014
Pakistan’s military headquarters said a rescue operation was under way and a number of staff and students had been evacuated.
#Psr Update:5th terrorist killed in the last under clearance block of school,meanwhile SSG troops rescued 2 more children & 2 staff members.
— AsimBajwaISPR (@AsimBajwaISPR) 16 декабря 2014
Five Taliban militants have been killed and the military are searching for the remaining gunmen.
#Peshawar: #Taliban militants storm Pak army-run school; at least 20 children dead http://t.co/doFao4cVUJ pic.twitter.com/3WFebkKpQh
— Hindustan Times (@htTweets) 16 декабря 2014
A senior military official said troops had surrounded the school and television footage showed them taking up positions.
The troops are still exchanging fire with attackers, more than three hours after the incident began.
The attack began around 10.30 am (0530 GMT) when a group of at least six insurgents, reportedly in military uniforms and with suicide vests, stormed into the military-run Army Public School.
“The chief minister of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province has received information from the army officials that [some] children are still being held hostage," Reuters quotes Inayatullah Khan, the provincial minister for local government as saying.
A hall at the site had been cleared and efforts to clear the rest of the area were underway, he added.
The Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) claimed responsibility for the attack, saying the gunmen had been ordered to shoot older students but not children, says AFP.
“This attack is a response to Zarb-e-Azab [operation] and the killing of Taliban fighters and harassing their families,"AFP quotes TTP spokesman Muhammad Khorasani as saying.
"We targeted school because army targets our families. We want them to feel our pain," Reuters quotes other Pakistani Talibans as saying.
Zarb-e-Azb is a joint military offensive of the Pakistani security forces against militant groups, including the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan.
A Reuters journalist at the scene could hear heavy gunfire from inside the school as soldiers surrounded it. Witnesses also described how a huge blast shook the school and gunmen went from classroom to classroom, shooting children.
