PESHAWAR, Pakistan — Pakistan was plunged into mourning Tuesday after Taliban militants in suicide vests laid siege to a school, massacring more than 130 children during eight hours of sheer terror. In total, 145 people were killed, officials said.
Those who survived emerged with stories of horror — of gunmen shooting indiscriminately into crowds or killing youngsters one by one.
"One of my teachers was crying, she was shot in the hand and she was crying in pain,'' Shahrukh Khan, 15, who was shot in both legs but survived, told Reuters. "One terrorist then walked up to her and started shooting her until she stopped making any sound.
"All around me my friends were lying injured and dead.''
A military source told NBC News that the attackers were wearing police uniforms and suicide vests.
"They burnt a teacher in front of the students in a classroom," he said. "They literally set the teacher on fire with gasoline and made the kids watch."
The government of Pakistan declared three days of mourning for the lives lost.
Maj. Gen. Asim Bajwa, a military spokesman, told NBC News that at least 132 children were killed in the attack, along with 10 staff from the school — including the principal. Seven militants were killed and seven special forces soldiers were injured.
"They didn't take any hostages initially and started firing in the hall," Bajwa also told a press conference. He told NBC News that they had enough ammunition and rations to have kept up the siege for days.
At a hospital near the school, blood stained the floors. Crying relatives roamed the wards and searched operating rooms, desperately searching for their sons and daughters.
The Pakistani Taliban have claimed responsibility for the attack, which Pakistani officials said appeared to be aimed at the children of senior military personnel.
Uniformed militants struck shortly before 11 a.m. local time (1 a.m. ET) when about 1,000 students — in grades one through 10 — and teachers were believed to be inside.
"We were standing outside the school and firing suddenly started and there was chaos everywhere and the screams of children and teachers," said Jamshed Khan, a school bus driver.
"The gunmen entered class by class and shot some kids one by one," one student who was in the Army Public School in Peshawar at the time told local media.
As the siege continued and Pakistani security forces battled to stop the assault, five "heavy" explosions were heard from the school at around 5 a.m. ET. Bombs planted by the attackers slowed rescue efforts, a military official said, and the massacre was not declared over until after 9 a.m. ET.
Wounded student Abdullah Jamal told The Associated Press he was getting first-aid instructions and training with a team of Pakistani army medics when the violence began for real. When the shooting started, Jamal said nobody knew what was going on in the first few seconds.
"Then I saw children falling down who were crying and screaming. I also fell down. I learned later that I have got a bullet," he said, speaking from his hospital bed. He had been shot in the leg.
President Barack Obama slammed the attack and said America stands with the people of Pakistan and its government's efforts to fight terrorism.
"By targeting students and teachers in this heinous attack, terrorists have once again shown their depravity," he said in a statement.
Education campaigner Malala Yousafzai, the Nobel Peace Prize winner and herself a victim of a heinous Taliban attack, called the school slaughter "atrocious and cowardly." She said she was "heartbroken by this senseless and cold blooded act of terror," adding in a statement that she will "along with millions of others around the world, mourn these children, my brothers and sisters — but we will never be defeated."
Kailash Satyarthi, the Indian children's rights advocate who shared the Nobel prize with Yousafzai, wrote on Twitter: "These are all our children who've been murdered today. My heart bleeds for bereaved families. One of the darkest days of humanity."
As the carnage played out in Peshawar, Pakistan's military carried out 10 airstrikes in the Khyber region, between Peshawar and the Afghanistan border, based on "actionable intelligence" according to a spokesman.
The Pakistani Taliban has vowed to attack government targets as it fights off a huge army operation in the country's tribal region.
Taliban spokesman Muhammad Umar Khorasani told Reuters his group was responsible for the attack. "Our suicide bombers have entered the school, they have instructions not to harm the children, but to target the army personnel," he said.
Reuters and The Associated Press contributed to this report.
First published December 15 2014, 11:57 PM
