Accessibility links

Breaking News
A schoolboy who was injured in a Taliban attack receives medical treatment at a hospital in Peshawar.
A schoolboy who was injured in a Taliban attack receives medical treatment at a hospital in Peshawar.

Live Updates: Pakistan School Attack

-- At least 141 people, including more than 132 children, have died in an attack on a military-run school in Peshawar. It is the deadliest terror attack in Pakistan's history. The Tehrik-e Taliban Pakistan (the Pakistani Taliban) has claimed responsibility.

-- Militants, who apparently did not try to take hostages, used firearms and explosives in what appears to have been an indiscriminate attack.

-- A Pakistani Taliban spokesman told RFE/RL's Radio Mashaal that the attack was revenge for an army operation in North Waziristan.

-- Military officials at the scene said that at least six armed men had entered the school and that about 500 students and teachers were believed to be inside. Police report that all militants have been killed and the attack is now over.

-- Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif announced a three-day mourning period across the country. Nobel Prize winner Malala Yousafzai, meanwhile, said she was "heartbroken" over the "senseless and cold-blooded act of terror."

*NOTE: Times are stated according to local time in Peshawar

09:53 16.12.2014

Here's an update from RFE/RL's Radio Mashaal. Earlier estimates had put the death toll at 18.

A senior official says 104 people, including 84 children, have been killed in a militant attack on a school in Peshawar, Pakistan.

The chief minister of the province where Peshawar is located, Pervez Khattak, spoke to media hours after gunmen entered the Army Public School and gunfire and explosions were heard.

"In CMH (Combined Military Hospital) there are around 60 and there are 24 dead in Lady Reading (hospital)," Khattak told local television channels, referring to children.

He said the number of children wounded was about the same as the death toll.

Government and hospital officials had earlier put the death toll at about 20 but said it was likely to rise.

09:55 16.12.2014

Pervez Khattak, the chief minister of Khyber Pakhtunkwa province, in a statement to media in Urdu:

"Today, around 10 or 10:30 am, around 8 to 10 terrorists entered the Army Public School and College and started indiscriminate firing. Now, some more than 100 children have been killed and some 80 have been injured. Emergency has been imposed in all hospitals of the city."

09:57 16.12.2014

Newsweek correspondent in Afghanistan and Pakistan (TTP refers to the Pakistani Taliban):

09:58 16.12.2014

10:00 16.12.2014

10:06 16.12.2014

There has been a push recently by mainstream political parties to negotiate with the Pakistani Taliban. Some, including opposition leader Imran Khan, have criticized the government for moving too slowly. Today's events may change the conversation.

10:11 16.12.2014

Eyewitness account

Ebad, a student in the 10th grade spoke to RFE/RL Radio Mashaal correspondent Zaland Yosufzai near the school shortly after the attack. Here's what he said:

"It was 10:30 this morning when we were called to the auditorium to get first aid training by an army colonel. When we arrived, firing started and [the militants] entered the auditorium. They killed so many students -- I saw some 40 to 50 killed right in front of me and they fired on colonel as well. There were also bomb blasts. I saw 4 or 5 of them [the militants] wearing black plain cloths when they entered."

10:37 16.12.2014

From the Facebook page of the Islamist Jamaat-e-Islami political party, which has condemned the attack.

10:40 16.12.2014

10:45 16.12.2014

Load more

XS
SM
MD
LG