14:47 GMT – AFP IS CLOSING THIS LIVE REPORT on the bloody Taliban attack on a school in Pakistan’s northwest city of Peshawar as the nation mourns the scores of young lives lost. In brief:
— Insurgents wearing paramilitary uniforms stormed the Army Public School and went from classroom to classroom shooting children, some as young as 12, according to witnesses, who also described a huge blast.
— At least 130 were killed in the assault — most of them children — ministers say, with around the same number injured. Following a military rescue operation, the siege ended around eight hours after it began with all six militants killed.
— The Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) has claimed responsibility for the attack, calling it revenge for a major military offensive in the region, as world leaders unite in condemnation.
— Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif described the attack as a “national tragedy unleashed by savages” and announced three days of national mourning.
14:41 GMT – Obama reacts – US President Barack Obama condemns the Taliban raid and promises that America will stand by Pakistan in its struggle against violent extremism.
“By targeting students and teachers in this heinous attack, terrorists have once again shown their depravity. We stand with the people of Pakistan, and reiterate the commitment of the United States to support the government of Pakistan in its efforts to combat terrorism and extremism and to promote peace and stability in the region.”
14:28 GMT – US PRESIDENT BARACK OBAMA DENOUNCES ‘ODIOUS’ ATTACK
14:28 GMT – Military offensive – The Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan says the assault was in retaliation for Pakistan’s military offensive in the region, an operation hailed as a major success in disrupting the TTP’s insurgency, which has killed thousands of Pakistanis since it erupted in 2007.
More than 1,600 militants have been killed since the launch of Zarb-e-Azb in June, according to data compiled by AFP from regular military statements.
14:22 GMT – Who are TTP? – Raffaello Pantucci, director of International Security Studies at the London-based think tank Royal United Services Institute (RUSI) speaks to AFP about Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), the group behind the attack:
“The thing to know about the TTP is that it’s an organisation that is not really an organisation, it’s more an umbrella entity under which there’s a lot of different tribes and factions that sort of group together under what we consider the TTP.
“They are an insurgent organisation and an insurgent organisation is about undermining the state and by attacking a school you are really demonstrating the government’s lack of ability to even protect its own children.”
He says the withdrawal of Western forces from Afghanistan has prompted a shift of groups like the TTP across the border into Afghanistan from where they can launch attacks into Pakistan, adding: “You’ve got an insurgency that used to be in Afghanistan with bases in Pakistan turning in some ways into an insurgency in Pakistan with bases in Afghanistan and that problem is only going to get worse as time goes on.”
14:05 GMT – Flags half-mast – Pakistan’s Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif has ordered three days of mourning, AFP can confirm. Flags are to be flown at half-mast on official buildings.
14:01 GMT – Global support – A flood of international support online for Pakistan, including this tweet from Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper: “Canada stands w/ the people of Pakistan in the wake of this horrific act of violence against children whose only crime was going to school.
Germany’s Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier condemns the “criminal attack in the strongest terms”, adding: “The hostage-taking and murder of children exceeds in its cruel cowardice all that Pakistan, stricken by years of terror and violence, has known before.”
13:51 GMT – National mourning – Pakistan Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif has announced three days of national mourning, according to media reports. Earlier he described the assault as a “national tragedy unleashed by savages”.
– Three days’ mourning –
13:41 GMT – ‘Ghastly act’ – Pakistan’s army spokesman Asim Bajwa, relays on Twitter the following statement from army chief General Raheel Sharif: “This ghastly act of cowardice of killing innocents clearly indicate they are not only enemies of Pak but enemies of humanity.”
13:37 GMT – Explosives planted – Senior police official Shafqat Malik confirms the combat phase of the response is over.
Chief army spokesman General Asim Bajwa says on Twitter that the operation is “closing up” but says explosive devices planted in school buildings by the militants are slowing clearance efforts. Special forces soldiers have rescued more than a dozen staff and students, he adds.
13:34 GMT – Clearance operation – Police official Abdullah Khan tells AFP: “The combat operation is over, the security personnel are carrying out a clearance operation and hopefully they will clear the building in a while. Dead bodies of six terrorists have been found in the building.”
13:24 GMT – Assault over – The bloody Taliban raid on an army-run school in northwest Pakistan has ended, police say, with all six attackers dead.
The assault on the school in the city of Peshawar killed at least 130 people, most of them students, according to officials.
13:20 GMT – PAKISTAN SCHOOL ATTACK OVER, ALL MILITANTS DEAD: POLICE
13:11 GMT – In case you’re just joining us, here is a quick summary of events so far:
— Taliban insurgents have killed at least 130 people, most of them children, after storming the Army Public School in Pakistan’s northwestern city of Peshawar. Around the same number were wounded.
— Many of the dead were killed in a suicide blast after at least five militants dressed in paramilitary uniforms entered the building and went from classroom to classroom shooting children, witnesses and officials say.
— Pakistan’s army says attackers have been cleared from all but one of the school’s buildings, with five militants killed.
— Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) has claimed responsibility for the attack which it says is retaliation for a major military offensive in the region.
13:04 GMT – Survivor’s account – Speaking from his bed in the trauma ward of the city’s Lady Reading Hospital, Shahrukh Khan, 16, says he and his classmates were in a careers guidance session in the school auditorium when four gunmen wearing paramilitary uniforms burst in.
“Someone screamed at us to get down and hide below the desks,” he said, adding that the gunmen shouted “Allahu akbar” (God is greatest) before opening fire. Then one of them shouted: ‘There are so many children beneath the benches, go and get them’,” Khan tells AFP.
Khan said he felt searing pain as he was shot in both his legs just below the knee. He tells how a man wearing boots was “looking for students and pumping bullets into their bodies”.
“I lay as still as I could and closed my eyes, waiting to get shot again. My body was shivering. I saw death so close and I will never forget the black boots approaching me — I felt as though it was death that was approaching me.”
‘I saw death’
12:42 GMT – Malala ‘heartbroken’ – Pakistan’s Nobel Peace Prize winner Malala Yousafzai issues this statement in response to the siege: “I am heartbroken by this senseless and cold blooded act of terror in Peshawar that is unfolding before us. Innocent children in their school have no place in horror such as this.
“I condemn these atrocious and cowardly acts and stand united with the government and armed forces of Pakistan whose efforts so far to address this horrific event are commendable. I, along with millions of others around the world, mourn these children, my brothers and sisters — but we will never be defeated.”
12:32 GMT – Cricketers ‘shocked’ – Pakistan’s cricketers have sent a message of condolence from the United Arab Emirates, where they are playing a one-day series against New Zealand.
Stand-in skipper Shahid Afridi says the attack has left everyone “shocked and hurt”. He says: “Our prayers are with the families who have lost their kids. I hope the situation will get better in Pakistan and we live in a secure atmosphere.”
12:29 GMT – AFP reporter Khurram Shahzad, in Peshawar, says around 200-250 people, mostly relatives of the schoolchildren, have gathered on a main road near the school.
The last official update suggests the attack is ongoing, with at least one militant remaining in one of the school’s buildings.
12:20 GMT – Taliban’s revenge – The Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), claiming responsibility for the attack, says it was carried out to avenge Taliban fighters and their families killed in the army’s offensive against militant strongholds in North Waziristan.
“We are doing this because we want them to feel the pain of how terrible it is when your loved ones are killed,” says TTP spokesman Muhammad Khorasani.
“We are taking this step so that their families should mourn as ours are mourning.”
– Taliban claims attack –
12:15 GMT – ‘Psychological impact’ – Talat Masood, a retired general and security analyst, says he believes the attack was intended to weaken the military’s resolve.
He tells AFP: “It is both tactical and strategic. The militants know they won’t be able to strike at the heart of the military, they don’t have the capacity because the army are prepared. So they are going for soft targets. These attacks have a great psychological impact.”
The school on Peshawar’s Warsak Road is part of the Army Public Schools and Colleges System, which runs 146 schools nationwide for the children of military personnel and civilians. Its students range in age from around 10 to 18.
12:10 GMT – French support – French President Francois Hollande has also joined the chorus of condemnation, describing the attack — one of the country’s bloodiest in recent years — as “vile”.
“No words can express the ignominy of such an attack against children in their school,” Hollande said in a statement.
He said France “supported the government of Pakistan in their fight against terrorism” and expressed solidarity with victims and their parents.
12:05 GMT – India PM’s condolences – Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi takes to Twitter to condemn the “cowardly” attack by Taliban militants and says India shares rival Pakistan’s pain.
In a series of tweets he writes: “Strongly condemn the cowardly terrorist attack at a school in Peshawar.
“It is a senseless act of unspeakable brutality that has claimed lives of the most innocent of human beings – young children in their school.
“My heart goes out to everyone who lost their loved ones today. We share their pain and offer our deepest condolences.”
– Global condemnation –
11:58 GMT – Scores wounded – To elaborate on the earlier death toll, provincial information minister Mushtaq Ghani told AFP the number of dead had reached 130, with a similar number wounded. The toll was confirmed by another provincial minister.
Provincial chief minister Pervez Khattak said the attackers were wearing uniforms of the government paramilitary Frontier Corps.
11:53 GMT – Attackers ‘cleared’ – Around five and a half hours after the attack began, the army’s chief spokesman General Asim Bajwa says the attackers have been cleared from all but one of the school’s buildings. Five militants have been killed, Bajwa says.
– Five attackers dead –
11:37 GMT – Parents mourn – Distraught parents have flocked to the Lady Reading Hospital, many of them weeping uncontrollably as children’s bodies arrive, their school uniforms drenched in blood, AFP’s Saad Khan reports.
Irshadah Bibi, 40, whose 12-year-old son was among the dead, beats her face in grief, throwing herself against an ambulance.
“O God, why did you snatch away my son? What is the sin of my child and all these children?” she weeps.
11:35 GMT – Blood appeal – Peshawar’s Lady Reading Hospital issues an urgent appeal for blood donations to help the wounded. “We are in dire need of negative blood,” Sharif Khan, the hospital’s medical superintendent, says.
11:31 GMT – ‘Indiscriminate’ gunfire – A student who survived the attack says soldiers came to rescue people during a lull in the firing.
“When we were coming out of the class we saw dead bodies of our friends lying in the corridors. They were bleeding. Some were shot three times, some four times,” the student says.
“The men entered the rooms one by one and started indiscriminate firing at the staff and students.”
11:30 GMT – Student party – Mudassar Abbas, a physics laboratory assistant at the school, says 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 says.
11:25 GMT – ‘130 dead’ – The latest toll of 130 dead comes from two provincial ministers. The majority of those killed are schoolchildren.
Provincial information minister Mushtaq Ghani says many of the dead were killed in a suicide blast.
11:21 GMT – PM’s ‘loss’ – Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif describes the attack as a “national tragedy unleashed by savages”.
“These were my children. This is my loss. This is the nation’s loss,” he says.
– ‘National tragedy’ –
11:13 GMT – ‘Barbaric attack’ – More support from India as Syed Akbaruddin, an official spokesman for India’s foreign ministry, tweets: “Our hearts go out to the grief stricken families of the innocent children killed and injured in this barbaric attack in Peshawar.
11:06 GMT – DEATH TOLL RISES TO 130: OFFICIALS
11:05 GMT – Khan halts protest – Pakistan’s opposition leader Imran Khan, whose party heads the government in the northwestern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, announces he is calling off his national protest against the government over alleged election rigging.
“We have decided to postpone our shutdown call and sit-ins for indefinite time,” he says from Islamabad. “There is no justification for a heinous crime like this, and we condemn it in the strongest possible words. I am leaving for Peshawar now but I want to tell the grieved families that the whole Pakistan is standing with you.”
11:00 GMT – India condemnation – India condemns the attack, with Home Minister Rajnath Singh saying it exposes the “real face of terrorism”.
Singh tweeted: “I strongly condemn the terrorist attack on a school at Peshawar. This dastardly and inhuman attack exposes the real face of terrorism. My heart goes out to the families of those children who got killed by the terrorists in Peshawar.”
10:54 GMT – ‘Rescue operation’ – Pakistan’s military headquarters says a “rescue operation” is under way. A senior military official says troops have surrounded the school, while television footage shows them taking up positions.
– Military ‘rescue operation’ –
10:42 GMT – Evacuations – As yet it is not clear how many people are still in the school. 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.
The attack started around 10:30 am (0530 GMT) when a group of at least five insurgents, reportedly in military uniforms, stormed the school.
10:37 GMT – Over 100 dead – The death toll in the attack has risen to more than 100, officials say. Senior provincial minister Inayatullah tells AFP at least 104 bodies have been taken to two hospitals in Peshawar.
10:30 GMT – WELCOME to AFP’s live report on the Taliban attack on an army-run school in Pakistan which has so far killed at least 95 people including 82 children.
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) has claimed responsibility for the attack, saying it is retaliation for a military offensive in the region.