As it happened: Pakistan school attack

This brings to an end our live coverage of the storming of the army-run school in Peshawar by Taliban gunmen. The attack left at least 141 people dead - 132 of them children - and many others wounded.

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tweets: Nothing I've ever reported before prepared me for today. My thoughts today were utterly selfish: my brothers, parents, my heartbeats. Be safe

In the aftermath of the attack it may now be dawning on Pakistan's generals and politicians that Sunni extremists present an existential threat to their own country, a commentary in the Financial Times says. It describes events on Tuesday as "one of the darkest days in the country's history".

tweets: Afghan Taliban: "The Islamic Emirate...is shocked at the incident and shares the pain of the families of children killed in the attack."

The Afghan Taliban have criticised Tuesday's attack as un-Islamic. The group's spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid said that they were sending their condolences to the families of the children killed in the attack and shared their sadness. The Afghan Taliban are stepping up their attacks in Afghanistan and share roots with the Pakistani Taliban. They usually share the same ideology too.

tweets: Seems stupid, but even this twitter catharsis is therapeutic. Feel stronger knowing I'm not alone & many, many others share my anger, pain

The deputy leader of the PTI party - which leads the coalition government in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province - tells the BBC that no amount of security could prevent random acts of violence from occurring. Shah Mehmood Qureshi said that provincial capital Peshawar is always on a state of high alert, adding that the people of Pakistan needed to be united in facing their enemies and that a "collective strategy" was necessary to deal with the "menace of terrorism".

PTI chief Imran Khan has announced that he will call off his 18 December nationwide strike following the massacre in the school, the APP news agency says.

AFPCopyright: AFP

Pakistani mourners carry the coffin of a teacher during his funeral following the attack by Taliban gunmen on a school in Peshawar.

Schools in Pakistan have long been in the crosshairs, the Guardian's Jason Burke writes. More than 1,000 have been destroyed by Islamist militants from one faction or another in the province of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa in the past five years. The institutions are seen to represent un-Islamic government authority.

says previous terrorist attacks in Pakistan have not produced consistent responses from the authorities. The 2008 bombing of the Marriott Hotel in Islamabad killed 53 people, prompting the the government and the military to launch a major offensive, but they remained divided over who to blame: extremists citing Islam, or America for going after them. In 2012, Pakistani Taliban gunmen seriously injured the 14-year-old campaigner for girls' rights Malala Yousafzai, accused of "promoting secularism". Again, there was a brief upsurge of anger... Then, this June government peace talks with the Taliban collapsed after a murderous assault on Karachi's international airport,.

APCopyright: AP

Pakistani army spokesman Maj Gen Asim Bajwa - who provided detailed information about the attack - on Tuesday was at the centre of attention of the Pakistani and world media.

"We support the measures undertaken by the government of Pakistan aimed at the extermination of the hotbeds of terrorism," a statement by the Russian foreign ministry quoted by the APP says. "We expect Pakistan to continue with its uncompromising struggle to eliminate the extremist infrastructure. Russia is ready to proceed with assisting the Pakistani government in its efforts to fight terror."

emails: I am studying in my first year. Should I be killed too? This act completely showed that terrorists are not against the children of Pakistan but against humanity. Isn't this our right to get an education?

tweets: In the wake of dastardly attack in Pakistan, I appeal to schools across India to observe 2 mins of silence tomorrow as a mark of solidarity.

Indian PM Narindra Modi has telephoned his Pakistani counterpart Nawaz Sharif to express his deep grief and sorrow over the killing of innocent people in Peshawar, the Pakistani APP news agency reports.

tweets: Insidel Lady Reading hospital -This man learned that his brother was killed in #PeshawarSchoolAttack more @bbcnews Six

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On air at 1800GMT the BBC's World Have Your Say will be speaking to people across Pakistan, to hear reaction to the attack. Listen Live here (http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p02dwbkn) and get in touch; you can tweet us @BBC_WHYS.

The Pakistani APP news agency has produced a chronology of the attack:

• Initially a suicide bomber managed to enter the auditorium of the school where a seminar was under way and blew himself up amid a group of students
• Other armed militants wearing military uniforms then forced their way into the school, some firing indiscriminately and others taking the principal, about 20 teachers and a group of 34 students hostage for eight hours
• The army operation against the militants began at 10:00 local time (05:00 GMT) and ended at 18:00 (13:00 GMT). The teachers and students held hostage were freed
• Four of the attackers blew themselves up while two were shot dead by the security forces at midday
• The last two gunmen, who were holding the teachers and pupils, were shot dead after a fierce gun battle (other reports suggested seven gunmen were involved in the attack)

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Outpourings of grief are taking place all over Peshawar well into the night as the city tries to come to terms with one of Pakistan's deadliest terror attacks.

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Schools across Peshawar were evacuated after the attack as a precaution. Here, a plainclothes security officer is seen taking pupils to safety.

Thousands of Indians are sending a message of support to Pakistan on Twitter in the wake of the Taliban school massacre in Peshawar, BBC Trending reports.

emails: I cannot find words to describe what we have lived today here. My 15-year-old son was wounded by a bullet. He was hit on the left side of the head, above the ear. He is in hospital now and doctors say the wound is not serious. The bullet just touched his head. I was in the office when I heard that something had happened at the school. I was hoping to find my son but I could not go in, security were not allowing anyone to do so. Thankfully, I got a call from the hospital to say that my son was there.

reports on the backlash against the Pakistani Taliban after the attack.

Sajid Khalid - who lives in the British city of Birmingham - attended the school in Peshawar as a child and his relatives were there during the attack. "I was shocked because most of our family, kids, they live locally - just two miles away, and most of the students they study in the school," he told the BBC. "So totally I was horrified. Straight away I just rang my brother. He was crying. I thought - is everything OK? He says no, my kids are OK but I'm in hospital with the other kids - like from seven to 14-15 year olds and dead bodies everywhere."

tweets: The #PeshawarAttack makes you want to sit down and cry some where.. My head can't stop thinking of those little souls.!

More from Shahrukh Khan: "The man with big boots kept on 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," he said. "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."

Teenager Shahrukh Khan describes how he managed to survive the attack. "I saw a pair of big black boots coming towards me, this guy was probably hunting for students hiding beneath the benches," he told the AFP news agency. He says he decided to play dead, despite being shot in both legs, by stuffing his tie into his mouth to stifle his screams.

reports that the attackers entered the school with supplies, preparing for a long haul.

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Women mourn their relative Mohammed Ali Khan - a 15-year-old student who was killed during the attack - at his house in Peshawar.

More from British PM David Cameron (see 16:12 entry). He says: "The scale of what has happened in Pakistan simply defies belief. It is a dark, dark day for humanity when something on this scale happens with no justification. There is not a belief system in the world that can justify such an act. I think what this shows is the worldwide threat that is posed by this poisonous ideology of extremist Islamist terrorism."

Pakistani PM Nawaz Sharif has announced three days of national mourning, the Pakistani newspaper The Express Tribune reports. The paper's website has changed the usual red colour of "The Express" words of its title into black, in what appears to be a sign of mourning. (BBC Monitoring).

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Funerals have been taken place across Peshawar following the school attack.

More from army spokesman Maj Gen Asim Bajwa: "[The militants] were contained and pushed back [before they were] confined into one block, where they were killed finally in the evening. "There were about 1,100 students and staff who were registered in this school. Out of them, 960 have been rescued by our security forces, especially the special services group."

Here is the latest BBC report of what we know about the massacre.

"My son was in uniform in the morning. He is in a casket now,'' distraught father Tahir Ali is quoted by the AP news agency as saying. Speaking while collecting the body of 14-year-old son Abdullah from hospital, he said: "My son was my dream. My dream has been killed."

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The BBC's Shaimaa Khalil in Peshawar has just spoken to Said - one of the survivors of the attack. Said, who was shot in the arm, said he survived by hiding under the chair.

More comment from the Taliban in their efforts to justify the attack: "What about our kids and children?" alleged commander Jihad Yar Wazir is quoted as asking the Daily Beast. "The parents of the army school are army soldiers and they are behind the massive killing of our kids and indiscriminate bombing in North and South Waziristan. To hurt them at their safe haven and homes - such an attack is perfect revenge."

The attackers "didn't take any hostages initially and started firing in the hall" as soon as they entered the school premises, military spokesman Maj Gen Asim Bajwa says.

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In Islamabad, activists and journalists lit candles in memory of the Peshawar victims, demanding an end to violent attacks.

The number of people killed in the Peshawar assault has now surpassed the previous worst terrorist attack in Pakistan's history - the tragedy on the Meena bazaar in 2009, the Guardian reports.

British Prime Minister David Cameron says the school attack is a "a dark, dark day for humanity".

The militants made no demands; they started killing children as soon as they entered the school, the Pakistani army is quoted as saying by Reuters.

What we are yet to know is whether all the children have been evacuated or if some are still in the school. That is really what many of the parents here [at the school] are worried about - they want to know if these other children are OK.

tweets: AUDIO: Eyewitness at #Peshawar hospital says 1000s trying to donate blood http://bbc.in/16pyCmF pic.twitter.com/EwqnXpsCyg

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UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Zeid Ra'ad al-Hussein - the first Muslim and the first Arab to hold the office - accuses the Taliban of "sinking to an all-time depth" in carrying out the attack. He says the group's ideology "bears no resemblance to any religion or any cultural norm".

tweets: The security personnel are now carrying out clearance operation: our correspondent Muhammad Shoaib reports #PeshawarAttack

The Pakistani Taliban has grown more extreme and violent as its circumstances have grown more dire, the Guardian's Jason Burke reports. He says that the movement has recently been divided by bitter internal competition and that when militants organisations do this, they "often become more extreme as individual commanders and their followers seek to prove themselves the most effective, and the most audacious".

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Although the army says the attack on the school is now over, soldiers are continuing to patrol the streets of Peshawar.

UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon describes the attack as "an act of horror and rank cowardice to attack defenceless children while they learn". He adds that "no cause can justify such brutality and no grievance can excuse such horror".

Afghan President Ashraf Ghani condemns the attack as a "wild act". He says killing innocent children is an absolutely un-Islamic and inhuman act. The BBC's Mike Wooldridge says that both Afghanistan and Pakistan face continual attacks by their respective Taliban movements, and both have frequently accused each other of supporting militant extremism.

Pakistani journalist Ahmed Rashid tells the BBC the Taliban raid was "a revenge attack, as many children in the school are sons and daughters of army officers". Mr Rashid adds it was also "an attempt to unify the Taliban, who are currently divided"

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Earlier in the day, Pakistani troops sealed off the area, taking up positions around the school in Peshawar.

Mohammed Tayyab (@tayyabm76) in Islamabad tweets: "This has shaken us.. badly shaken. Whoever i am talking to, is in tears... We, as a nation must change our direction."

"The carnage struck at the heart of Pakistan's military - one of the nation's most highly respected institutions - which is seen as the guardians of stability in a turbulent region and an important bridge between Pakistan and Western allies such as the United States," the Washington Post reports.

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Shocked relatives have been waiting outside Peshawar's Lady Reading Hospital - desperate to hear about the fate of their loved ones.

"This is the world's loss," Mr Kerry says. "This act of terror angers and shakes all people of conscience, and we condemn it in the strongest terms possible."

Following on from President Obama, US Secretary of State John Kerry describes the attack as "absolutely gut wrenching... A house of learning turned into a house of unspeakable horror".

Pakistan's MQM party leader Altaf Hussain is the latest politician strongly to denounce the attack. "I call upon the authorities to take all necessary action to bring the perpetrators of the abhorrent attack to justice," he says.

Mohammad Khurasani added: "These are the soldiers who have thrown their bodies in sacks. We were forced to make this decision, so that they should be hurt in their homes. When you are wounded in your own home then you realise. They burnt our homes and we were forced to set their homes on fire."

The Pakistani Taliban have attempted to justify the attack. Taliban spokesman Mohammad Khurasani says it was a response to anti-militant offensives in North Waziristan and the Khyber region. "The children of our tribes are our children. The women of our tribes are our mothers and our sisters. Six hundred people have been killed in just one year, innocent people who were killed, their bodies mangled."

The school in Peshawar was an "easy target for the terrorists", local resident Asfandy Yar tells the BBC Radio 5live. He says the attack was "very prepared".

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Across Pakistan, people have been mourning the victims of the Peshawar school attack.

More from President Obama's statement. It says: "Our hearts and prayers go out to the victims, their families and loved ones. By targeting students and teachers in this heinous attack, terrorists have once again shown their depravity."

tweets: Police sweep grounds of #ArmyPublicSchool for any possibility of explosives. Clearing operation in aftermath of #PeshawarAttack in progress.

US President Barack Obama in a statement condemns the "horrific" attack and reiterates his support for the efforts of the Pakistani government "to combat terrorism and extremism".

tweets: The biggest human tragedy Pakistan may have ever seen. No words can suffice. Even as a mother it haunts me to even try to relate. Allah Rehm

says it remains unclear whether the army operation is over. She says parents are distraught and want to know whether all the children have been evacuated from the school.

tweets: Pak Foreign Office says nation stands united in condemning heinous crime/remains resolute to eliminate terrorism from its soil

Dr Hamidullah, who works at Peshawar's Lady Reading Hospital, tells the BBC that a number of those being treated have head and chest injuries.

Children who escaped the attack describe seeing friends shot dead in front of them, and the bodies of children lying in classrooms and corridors, the BBC's Jill McGivering reports. Many say the gunmen chased children down corridors and went from room to room, opening fire at random.

on Facebook says: 2,3 funerals in every street of Peshawar. In my street there are 3! Peshawar bleeds, Pakistan cries.

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Pakistani schoolgirls pray for the victims of the Peshawar attack during a memorial ceremony in their school Hyderabad.

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Terrified parents - accompanied by police and the army - have been rushing their children from the area.

According to DawnNews, another injured schoolchild has succumbed to his wounds at Lady Reading Hospital in Peshawar, raising the death toll to 131.

tweets: - O Negative blood needed in CMH & LadyReading hosp in #Peshawar CMH saved #MalalaYousafzai - hopefully they save many more Malalas today!

A Pakistani army spokesman says six suspected militants are dead and the operation against them is nearly over.

Businesses are to remain closed in Peshawar on Wednesday, and traders' associations across Pakistan have announced that they are to observe a day of mourning, the Express Tribune reports.

Nobel laureate Kailash Satyarthi has told India's NDTV of his outrage at the attack. "I beg the Taliban, take me and leave these children," he is reported as saying.

tweets: "#Psr Update: Latest; 7 more male staff members and 4 lady teachers rescued by SSG. Closing up"

tweets this picture of people gathering outside a blood bank in Peshawar to donate.

@wajahatullahkh7 Copyright: @wajahatullahkh7

says reports that accuse the gunmen of being foreign fighters should be treated with caution.

"Whilst some Pakistanis accuse outside elements such as the Indian intelligence agencies or foreign fighters as being responsible for the attack, in fact, students at the school have said that the gunmen had Pashtu accents," he says.

"Many Pakistanis are in denial about the fact that the Pakistani Taliban is an indigenous movement and that the violence in northern Pakistan is part a civil conflict."

To recap, officials say at least 126 people - mostly children - have been killed in a Taliban assault on an army-run school in the Pakistani city of Peshawar. Many more are injured. Pakistan's security forces are struggling to regain control of the school, hours after it was stormed by militants.

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The attack in Peshawar is being seen as the worst in Pakistan in recent times.

Aimal Wagas in Rawalpindi, Pakistan emails: "I am a Pakistani student. I am 13 years old. Please help us. Taking innocent lives is not just a little thing. Please can you just spread the message that we are innocent, we don't want any of this."

tweets:#Psr Update:2 more children,2 teachers rescued.6th terrorist killed in last block.IEDs planted by terrorists hamper speed of clearance

tweets: The terrorists, as I had reported earlier, came to kill and be killed. This makes rescuing those trapped hugely challenging, says a source.

The Express Tribune newspaper in Pakistan is reporting sounds of explosions and firing continuing in the area around the school, as more security personnel arrive to take part in the operation against the militants.

tweets: One of the students of #ArmyPublicSchool says that the terrorists had foreign accent and were talking in Arabic.

Shahid Khan in Pakistan emails: "We Pakistanis are the most affected from terrorist attacks. For more than 10 years there are attacks on mosques, shopping malls, on hotels. God help us, it's really sad day for me."

Francois Hollande, tweets: I strongly condemn the despicable attack against a school in Peshawar this morning that caused the deaths of more than 80 children

PM Nawaz Sharif has called for all parties to hold a conference in Peshawar on Tuesday following the attack, according to the newspaper Dawn.

@MianFarhanRaza tweeted this picture from the Combined Military Hospital in Peshawar as many people gather and queue to give blood.

@MianFarhanRazaCopyright: @MianFarhanRaza

tweets: "Jam Packed roads in #Peshawar- traffic jams - streets chockablock - hearing sirens - #PeshawarSchoolAttack"

Shaimaa KhalilCopyright: Shaimaa Khalil

tweets: Too many Pakistani politicians are soft footed when talking about the Taliban. They equivocate rather than challenge. #PeshawarAttack

Shireen Khalid Wadud told the BBC that her friend's 13-year-old daughter was at the school in Peshawar when the gunmen burst in. "She pretended to be dead," she said. "When the gunmen left the class, she ran and managed to escape.

"She was the only person who could escape from the class... She is wounded in her leg, but fortunately it is not serious. She is in hospital. She is very panicked and she is frightened."

The US Ambassador to Pakistan, Richard Olson, has released a statement expressing "deepest sympathies and condolences to the families of the victims of Tuesday's heinous attack".

He said: "The United States strongly condemns senseless and inhumane attacks on innocent students and educators, and stands in solidarity with the people of Pakistan, and all who fight the menace of terrorism."

A doctor at the Lady Reading Hospital in Peshawar has told BBC World News that some students were shot in the head and chest, while others died in a suicide bomb attack in their school playground.

Umar Butt in Lahore, Pakistan emails: I did my matriculation from the same school in 1995. I feel as if my memories have been shot by these aliens. This is by far the saddest day of my life and I feel so very much for the kids who lost their lives and for the families who lost their most precious gifts.

tweets: Over 100 children massacred in school in #PeshawarAttack. My heart bleeds for bereaved families. One of the darkest days of humanity.

BBC News has put together a gallery of the most powerful images from the attack. Warning: you may find some of these images disturbing.

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This attack is a retaliation against the Pakistan army. For the last few months the Pakistan army has intensified its offensive in tribal areas against the Pakistan Taliban and now the Pakistan Taliban has given its response. For years politicians have hesitated to back the army campaign against the Pakistan Taliban, but this attack might change that. Within hours of the attack Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif gave an uncharacteristically clear statement against the attackers. And the opposition leader Imran Khan called off a lockdown he had planned for the 18 December. It may be that by killing too many children, the Pakistan Taliban has managed to unite the politicians and the army.

PM Nawaz Sharif has told reporters in Peshawar that attacks of this kind are to be expected in the wake of Pakistan's military operations against the Taliban, according to Dawn.

"I feel that until and unless this country is cleansed from terrorism, this war and effort will not stop, no one should be doubtful of this," he said.

"Such attacks are expected in the wake of a war and the country should not lose its strength."

The BBC's World Service Outside Source programme is rolling live on events in Peshawar.

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Most of those hurt in the attack are believed to be aged under 15.

says a fifth attacker at the school has been killed.

Earlier, Taliban expert Ahmed Rashid told the BBC World Service that militants had attacked "something which is very sensitive to the army".

"Many of the soldiers and officers fighting the Taliban have their children in this school so this is an attempt to demoralise the military," he said.

Eyewitness accounts are continuing to come in. Mudassir Awan, a worker at the school, earlier told Reuters he had seen six people scaling the walls of the school. "We thought it must be the children playing some game," he said. "But then we saw a lot of firearms with them.

"As soon as the firing started, we ran to our classrooms...They were entering every class and they were killing the children."

says Pakistani army head Raheel Sharif is on his way to Peshawar and people will be waiting to hear how the military will respond to this attack in coming days.

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi has condemned the school attack in Peshawar.

He tweets: "It is a senseless act of unspeakable brutality that has claimed lives of the most innocent of human beings - young children in their school."

And: My heart goes out to everyone who lost their loved ones today. We share their pain & offer our deepest condolences.

tweets: Eyewitness schoolboy on assailants "they were dressed in white, were young and began to fire indiscriminately into the yard" #PeshawarSiege

BBC World Update has been speaking to Taliban expert Ahmed Rashid, who has been outlining reasons why the Taliban would attack the school at this time. He suggests:

• To demoralise the military
• Malala Yousafzai just won the Nobel Peace Prize
• Peshawar has become an ungovernable city; terrorism is now rampant

tweets:#Psr Update: Terrorists pushed & confined to last of 4 blocks of school. 4 terrorists killed so far. Search for remaining on, Clearance underway

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Map showing the location of the Peshawar Army Public School that is under attack from Taliban gunmen.

A recent article by the Express Tribune drew attention to the nurses of Lady Reading Hospital in Peshawar, where the injured from today's attacks are being treated. The nurses there frequently respond to bomb attacks and similar incidents due to the ongoing conflict against the Taliban.

"When you stuff bodies in sacks and tear shroud regularly…Those things can drive you crazy" - Nasreen Qayyum, Head Nurse at LRH

tweets: "Death toll reaches to more than 126 in the #PeshawarAttack. #PakArmy operation still underway. Firing again starts after lull of 30 minutes"

tweets: It's time for a media blackout of TTP. No quotes, explanations, updates, nothing. They've made their statement. No more. Shut off the oxygen

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A student weeps on a man's shoulder after he was rescued from the school.

tweets: Can't think of a bloodier attack in Pakistan in recent years. Death toll already bigger than last year's awful Peshawar church bombing.

Eyewitnesses have told reporters that the attack began when five or six armed men scaled the school walls and opened fire. One eyewitness said they tried to shut the classroom doors, but the gunmen broke them down:

"We ducked under the tables and chairs, but they shot at our heads and legs. The kept firing and coming further inside the room, but we did not move because they shot at anyone who moved. We continued to hide under the tables and chairs."

Pakistani paper the Express Tribune is reporting that the death toll has now risen to over 120. The paper adds that two fresh blasts have been heard from within the vicinity and firing is still going on.

tweets: Three terrorists killed by security forces, one detonated his suicide vest... sources. #PeshawarAttack

The Indian Home Minister Rajnath Singh has condemned the attack in Peshawar, saying it has exposed the "real face of terrorism".

He tweets: "I strongly condemn the terrorist attack on a school at Peshwar."

And: "My heart goes out to the families of those children who got killed by the terrorists in Peshwar. I express my condolences to those families."

PM Nawaz Sharif has reached Peshawar to oversee the operation against the gunmen, according to Dawn.

The BBC's Aamer Ahmed Khan says the Pakistani Taliban has never attacked a school building with children inside before. He says the scale of the assault may be an indication of the militants' frustration and anger at recent losses to the army.

#PeshawarAttack is now the top trending hashtag on Twitter in Pakistan, and is also trending worldwide.

tweets: Could this be end of Pakistan Taliban? Hard to imagine who, even among militant extremists, could stomach supporting it now. #PeshawarAttack

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A Pakistani woman weeps as she waits outside the hospital where the injured are being treated in Peshawar.

tweets: Shocked at attack on school in Peshawar. Strongly condemn this inhuman act of utter barbarism.

Children are still being held hostage by Taliban gunmen - according to a Pakistani official in the military reported by Reuters.

Pakistanis are calling for blood donations on Twitter in efforts to save children and others injured. Users are retweeting telephone numbers of the hospitals in Peshawar and urging locals to go and donate blood.

User Hamza writes: "Lady Reading & CMH need blood donations urgently contact 03139872057, 03009053727 #PeshawarAttack".

Another user "Saba sheikh.D" wrote: "urgent ! O negative blood is needed at Lady Reading Hosp plz plz rush thr #PeshawarAttack"

The Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI), the largest party in the KPK province, tweets that its chairman, Imran Khan, is heading to Peshawar immediately:

"Chairman Imran Khan, Jehangir Tareen, Naeemul Haq leaving for Peshawar shortly #PeshawarAttack#KPKUpdates"

For more information about the Taliban conflict in Pakistan, visit the BBC's Special Report page.

Hassam tweets: I hope Pakistanis would stop criticising #Malala & deeming her attack as a fabrication now that another school has endured terror. #Pakistan

tweets: Dr Tahir-ul-Qadri strongly condemns the attack on children's school in #Peshawar

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A Pakistani army soldier takes position on a bunker close to the school.

If you are seeing the abbreviation KPK used a lot, it stands for the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, the north-western province in Pakistan which borders Afghanistan.

"We targeted the school because the army targets our families. We want them to feel our pain," Reuters news agency quotes the Taliban as saying.

The provincial government has announced three days of mourning, according to The Express Tribune.

Pakistani newspaper The Express Tribune reports that Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif says the Peshawar school attack is a national crisis. "I will monitor the operation personally from Peshawar," he says.

tweets: KPK Chief Minister says 24 dead bodies are in Lady Reading Hospital, while 60 are at the Combined Military Hospital

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Pakistani President Mamnoon Hussain has condemned the attack, APP news agency reports. He expressed deep grief over the loss of innocent lives and stressed the need to bring the culprits to justice.

Latest figures are now 104 killed (including 84 students) in the Peshawar school attack, according to chief minister KPK Pervez Khattak.

Shireen in Peshawar emailed: "Not only have they attached the school and held the students hostage, they are not letting any one enter or leave the building. The roads across Peshawar are blocked and both the students and their parents are in a constant state of panic."

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An ambulance drives away from the school in Peshawar under attack from Taliban militants.

Naeem Khan in Peshawar told the BBC: "I was in area when I heard a blast. It was huge. I moved nearer to the place where sound came from. Security forces wouldn't allow anyone to go in. The media weren't allowed in either at that time."

The dead are believed to include many schoolchildren as well as teachers and a paramilitary soldier.

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Local TV stations show wounded children in hospital following the attack.

Local media are reporting that the death toll has risen to at least 50.

The phrases 'Army Public School' and 'Warsak Road', the location of the school, are trending on Twitter in Pakistan.

tweets: We strongly condemn the attack on Peshawar school. Attack on innocent children in the name of religion is not acceptable.

Pakistan's Urdu TV channel Geo News cites security forces as saying three attackers have been killed in the operation at the Peshawar school.

A physics lab assistant at the school, Mudassir Awan, described how the attack unfolded: "As soon as the firing started, we ran to our classrooms. A party was being held for classes nine and ten and so a small number of children were there. On the upper floor, exams were being held for classes eleven and twelve... I saw the attackers. There were six or seven men. They were entering every class and they were beating the children."

in Pakistan tweets: Talked to my cousin who is Surgeon in LRH says "My heart is going out, all children are targeted on their chests like snipers have attacked"

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The attack is taking place in Peshawar, the largest city in northwest Pakistan, with a population of around four million people. The Taliban have stepped up attacks in recent years in the north-west close to the border with Afghanistan.

Aamer Ahmed Khan, editor of the BBC Urdu Service, says the schoolchildren are all believed to be under the age of 15. Those injured have been taken to Peshawar's Lady Reading Hospital.

tweets: KPK Health minister tells @BBCUrdu that 23 have died in the attack on army-run school in Peshawar, incl 1 guard and 1 teacher

Our correspondent says the army-run school is on a main road in northern Peshawar with a number of other schools on.

says a member of the Taliban called a BBC journalist and said it was their men who went into the school.

A school worker and a student interviewed by the local Geo TV station said the attackers had entered the Army Public School's auditorium, where a military team was conducting first-aid training for students.

The army says most of the school's 500 students have been evacuated.

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Local television images showed injured children being rushed away for treatment.

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Schoolchildren are pictured moving away from the school as it comes under attack from Taliban gunmen.

The militants purportedly claimed the attack was an act of revenge for fighters killed in an ongoing military offensive against Taliban strongholds near Peshawar.

Some 500 students are believed to have been at the Army Public School. It is not clear how many have been taken hostage.

At least 20 people, 15 of them children, have reportedly been killed and others taken hostage in an assault by five or six militants wearing security uniforms.

Welcome to the BBC's live updates on the storming of an army-run school in the Pakistani city of Peshawar by Taliban gunmen.