At least 126 people were killed Tuesday when Taliban gunmen attacked a military-run school in Peshawar, Pakistan.
As at the time of this report more students were still being held hostage inside the school as distraught parents watched helplessly.
Speaking with newsmen, provincial minister Inayatullah Khan said that explosions and gunfire were heard from the school hours after Taliban attackers first entered.
"A grieving parent Tahir Ali lamented my son was in uniform in the morning. He is in a casket now,"as he came to the hospital to collect the body of his 14-year-old son Abdullah. "My son was my dream. My dream has been killed."
Most of the dead were between the ages of 12 to 16.
Recounting their ordeal traumatized children who were lucky enough to escape alive said “ six or seven people were walking class-to-class and opening fire on children.
"While we were being moved out, we saw bodies of our classmates lying in the corridors,"
"All the children had bullet wounds and the children were bleeding.
In all, about 500 pupils and teachers were believed to be inside the Army Public School and Degree College when uniformed militants stormed the building Tuesday morning, Most of the students were civilians.
Taliban spokesman Muhammad Umar Khorasani claimed responsibility for the attack in a phone call to media, saying that six suicide bombers had carried out the attack as revenge for the killings of Taliban members at the hands of Pakistani authorities. But the chief minister said there were eight attackers, dressed in military uniforms. Two were killed by security forces and one blew himself up. The rest were still fighting.
"We selected the army's school for the attack because the government is targeting our families and females," Khorasani said, . "We want them to feel the pain."
Khorasani said that the attackers had been ordered to shoot the older students but not the young children.
Nobel Prize winner Malala Yousafzai, who was shot in the head by the Taliban in 2012 for promoting girls' education, said in a statement that she was "heartbroken" by the violence. "Innocent children in their school have no place in horror such as this," she said. "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."
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