Slaughtered as Taliban storm Pakistan School

The Taliban stormed a military-run school in northwest Pakistan on Tuesday and gunned down at least 126 people, most of them children, in one of the country's deadliest attacks in recent weeks.

Hours after the attack, the Pakistani military was still exchanging gunfire with the militants inside the Army Public School and Degree College, in the violence-plagued city of Peshawar, about 120 kilometers (75 miles) from the country's capital, Islamabad.

The information minister for the province, Mushtaq Ghani, says most of the dead in Tuesday's attack were students, children and teenagers, from the school.

The still-unfolding violence began in the morning hours, with about half a dozen gunmen entering the school. Two loud booms of unknown origin were heard coming from the scene in the early afternoon, as Pakistani troops exchanged fire with the attackers.

 The Pakistani military said it had pushed the attackers to four blocks of the school, and killed four.

The death toll has steadily risen, and officials fear it will climb higher. The number of injured was upwards of 100.

Most of those who died were between the ages of 12 and 16, said Pervez Khattak, chief minister of the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, where Peshawar is located.