At least 132 students and nine staff members were killed on Tuesday after Taliban gunmen opened fire in a school in the Pakistani city of Peshawar, reports Reuters.
Gunmen entered the school compound with suicide vests strapped to their bodies and indiscriminately opened fire on schoolchildren and teachers, witnesses have told press.
The school, which is run by the military, is attended by over 1,100 people, many of them children of army personnel.
The Pakistani army ended the siege 8 hours after the Taliban militants infiltrated the school, declaring that all nine militants had been killed.
The Taliban, immediately claimed responsibility for the attack.
“We selected the army’s school for the attack because the government is targeting our families and females. We want them to feel pain,” said the Taliban spokesperson Muhammed Umar Khorasani.
The United States Secretary of State John Kerry, condemning the attack, said, “This act of terror angers and shakes all people of conscience, the perpetrators must be brought to justice.”
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