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This is what we know so far:
• All militants have been killed and the siege is over, police say.
• 141 people have been killed, including at least 132 pupils, according to a government official.
• A teacher was reportedly burned alive in front of pupils and children were shot in the head.
• The Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (Pakistani Taliban) has claimed responsibility for the attack and said it was in revenge for an anti-terrorist military offensive.
• Spokesman Muhammad Khorasani said it was "just the trailer” to further attacks.
• Eyewitnesses said the attackers were dressed as soldiers and opened fire at random, detonating an unknown number of suicide bombs.
• David Cameron expressed his sympathy on Twitter, calling the targeting of a school "horrifying" and "deeply shocking" and political leaders around the world have condemned the massacre.
an hour ago
A spokesman for the Pakistani military says that 141 people, most of them children, were killed as the death toll rises again.
Asim Bajwa told a news conference that 132 of the dead were children and another nine were staff members.
2 hours ago
Many of the deaths were caused by suicide blasts as at least three of the militants blew themselves up, during a gun battle with the Pakistani army. One distraught family member was given a wrong body because the faces of many children were so badly burned.
2 hours ago
Shahrukh Khan, 15, was shot in both legs but survived after hiding under a bench.
"One of my teachers was crying, she was shot in the hand and she was crying in pain," he 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."
2 hours ago
Pakistani army commandos leave the army school as the military operation concludes. Picture: AFP/Getty Images
2 hours ago
Pakistan Army soldiers are beginning to leave the school but the recovery in Peshawar is just beginning. Funerals are starting for the more than 130 victims but many parents have not even have their children's deaths confirm as authorities work to identify dozens of bodies marked "unknown".
2 hours ago
The UN Secretary-General, Ban Ki-moon, called the massacre “an act of horror and rank cowardice to attack defenseless children while they learn.”
“No cause can justify such brutality. No grievance can excuse such horror,” he said. “Getting an education is every child's right. Going to school should not have to be an act of bravery.”
2 hours ago
Pakistani schoolgirls pray for victims who were killed, during a memorial ceremony in their school in Hyderabad, Pakistan. Picture: EPA
2 hours ago
A UN human rights official has drawn comparisons between the Pakistan attack and the kidnapping of hundreds of schoolgirls in Nigeria by Boko Haram.
Zeid Ra'ad Al said: "Nowhere in the world should it be an act of bravery for a child to attend school. Yet, in parts of Pakistan, Afghanistan and Nigeria simply showing up at school takes tremendous courage and determination.
"In recent years, my staff have been receiving increasing frequent reports in these three countries of schools being destroyed or closed because of militants' threats, and of schoolchildren - especially girls - being kidnapped, shot, attacked with acid or poisoned by groups whose ideology bears no resemblance to any religion or any cultural norm".
2 hours ago
The leader of Imran Khan's Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) party, Shireen Mazari, said that out of 146 people killed, nearly 140 were children. 113 were also injured, she said.
3 hours ago
A plainclothes security officer escorting pupils who escaped the massacre to safety earlier. Photo: AP
3 hours ago
Meanwhile, Philip Hamond has said the "UK continues to stand shoulder to shoulder with the government and people of Pakistan in the fight against terrorism".
"Nothing can justify such an horrific attack on children going to school," the Foreign Secretary added.
3 hours ago
Barack Obama has condemned the "depraved" attack and pledged US support for the government of Pakistan in fighting the Taliban.
"Our hearts and prayers go out to the victims, their families and loved ones," he added.
3 hours ago
Police are sweeping the grounds of the Army Public School for bombs after the terrorists used IEDs to try and hamper the rescue operation.
3 hours ago
As the police and army finish their rescue operation, Peshawar is counting its dead, and the gridlocked streets are beginning to fill with funeral processions.
3 hours ago
A man comforting one of the children who survived the attack. Photo: Reuters
3 hours ago
The chief spokesperson for the Pakistani Army, Asim Bajwa, said air strikes had already been launched against the Pakistani Taliban in the wake of the attack. He said that in spite of threats, it has only strengthened the army's resolve to hunt down the "inhuman" terrorists until their "final elimination."
3 hours ago
One of the pupils who survived, Irfan Shah, told the MailOnline he was sitting in class at 10.30 when he heard gunshots.
"Our teacher first told us that some kind of drill was going on and that we do not need to worry," he said. "Then the sound came closer. Then we heard cries. One of our friends open the window of the class.
"He started weeping as there were several school fellows lying on the ground outside the class.
"Everybody was in panic. Two of our class fellows ran outside class in panic. They were shot in front of us."
Irfan's teacher told the children to run out of the school's back gate and he and a friend escaped hand-in-hand as they were shot at.
4 hours ago
A Taliban spokesman has claimed that the massacre was "just the trailer" to further attacks. Muhammad Khorasani told AFP: “They [military] was always wrong about our capabilities. We are still able to carry out major attacks. This was just the trailer.”
He claimed that the gunmen sent to storm the school were under orders to "shoot the older students but not the children".
4 hours ago
Peshawar police have told AFP news agency that the attack is over and all the Taliban militants involved are dead.
4 hours ago
People carry the coffin of a victim of Taliban attack. Photo: AP
4 hours ago
According to Dawn News, another injured pupil has succumbed to his wounds at Lady Reading Hospital, bringing the death toll to 131 children and adults.
4 hours ago
Nigel Inkster, a former assistant chief of MI6 now with the International Institute for Strategic Services think tank, said the massacre was “blow-back” for army attempts to quash the Taliban and Pakistan could expect worst to come.
“Up until very recently the Pakistan army were congratulating themselves that the latest operation had very little blow-back, as they call it," he told Press Association.
“This is perhaps the most significant event we have seen thus far...it is an attack of revenge, and there is possibly more where this came from.
“The Pakistan army has gone beyond the point of no return.
“They have been saying they have been pleasantly surprised by the lack of blow-back so far - there is more to come."
4 hours ago
The IndependentMalala Yousafzai has condemned Taliban's attack on a school in Pakistan as a "senseless and cold-blooded act of terror".
5 hours ago
The US Ambassador to Pakistan, Richard Olson, has extended America's "deepest sympathies and condolences to the families of the victims".
He added: "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.
"Few have suffered more at the hands of terrorists and extremists than the people of Pakistan. That is why it remains essential for the United States and Pakistan to continue to work together to secure peace and stability in the region."
5 hours ago
Malala Yousafzai, who was shot by the Taliban in 2012, has released a statement condemning the attack as "atrocious and cowardly".
The 17-year-old said: "I am heartbroken by this senseless and cold-blooded act of terror in Peshawar that is unfolding before us.
"Innocent children in their school have no place in horror such as this...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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