Taliban storm Pakistan school, kill 95
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PESHAWAR, Pakistan (AFP) - Taliban gunmen stormed an army-run school in Pakistan on Tuesday, killing at least 95 people including 82 children in one of the country's bloodiest attacks in recent years, officials said.
Witnesses described how a huge blast shook the Army Public School in the northwestern city of Peshawar and gunmen went from classroom to classroom, shooting children.
The Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) claimed responsibility for the attack as retaliation for a major military offensive in the region, saying militants had been ordered to shoot older students.
The attack began around 10.30 am (0530 GMT) when a group of at least five insurgents, reportedly in military uniforms, entered the school.
Pakistan's military headquarters said a "rescue operation" was under way, with troops still exchanging fire with attackers more than three hours after the incident began.
A security official told AFP that hundreds of students and staff were in the school when the attack began, though according to the military the bulk of them have been evacuated.
It is not clear how many are still in the school.
Peshawar's Lady Reading Hospital received 26 bodies, spokesman Jamil Shah said, while a report from the city's Combined Military Hospital seen by AFP said they had 69 dead.
Provincial information minister Mushtaq Ghani said many of the dead were killed in a suicide blast.
Mudassar Abbas, a physics laboratory assistant at the school, said some students were celebrating at a party when the attack began.
"I saw six or seven people walking class-to-class and opening fire on children," he said.
