At least 130 people, mostly children, have been killed in a Taliban assault on an army-run school in Peshawar, according to Pakistani officials.
PHOTOS: The aftermath of a Taliban attack on a school in the Pakistani city of Peshawar. http://t.co/3PP2QqI9gv pic.twitter.com/6THdcCCqfA
— Reuters Top News (@Reuters) December 16, 2014
In a statement, the Taliban said they attacked the school on Tuesday because the army targets their families, Radio New Zealand reports.
“We selected the army's school for the attack because the government is targeting our families and females,” spokesman Muhammad Umar Khorasani said. “We want them to feel the pain.”
The assault began at around 10am local time when nine armed men – some of them wearing bomb vests - entered the Army Public School where there were about 500 students. Some witnesses said the militants were wearing Pakistani army uniforms.
A military spokesman said the Taliban attackers made no demands and started killing children as soon as they entered the building.
Locals said they heard gunfire which lasted for several minutes, as well as screams from students and teachers. It was not clear how the militants got into the facility and one official said more than 100 of the dead were children.
Police struggled to hold back distraught parents trying to break past a cordon and get to the school.
