The Taliban's deadliest attack in Pakistan, killing more than 130 children at an army-run school, has drawn worldwide condemnation.
Funerals are taking place for the 132 children and nine members of staff killed at the Peshawar school. Scores of survivors were being treated in hospitals.
Funerals were under way in Peshawar following the Taliban attack on an army-run school. Photo: AFP
Mourners crowded around coffins bedecked with flowers, while other families waited at hospitals for news.
Gunmen then went from classroom to classroom at the military-run school, shooting pupils and teachers where they found them, survivors say.
Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif said it was a national tragedy and declared three days of mourning.
In a statement, the Taliban said they attacked the school on Tuesday because the army targets their families.
"We selected the army's school for the attack because the government is targeting our families and females," spokesman Muhammad Umar Khorasani said. "We want them to feel the pain."
Relatives carry the coffin of a student from a hospital following the attack. Photo: AFP
Listen to more
US President Barack Obama said terrorists had "once again shown their depravity" while UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon said it was "an act of horror and rank cowardice".
India's prime minister, Narendra Modi, described the massacre as a senseless act of unspeakable brutality.
An Afghan Taliban spokesperson, Zabihullah Mujahid, said the intentional killing of innocent people, children and women is against the basics of Islam.
The Pakistani Taliban are separate from but allied to the Afghan Taliban across the border. Both aim to overthrow their own governments and establish an Islamic state.
Brutal attack
The assault began at around 10 am local time when seven armed men wearing suicide bomb vests entered the Army Public School which has about 500 students.
The Taliban attackers made no demands and started killing children as soon as they entered the building.
One boy told reporters he had been with a group of 10 friends who tried to run away and hide. He was the only one to survive. Others described seeing pupils lying dead in the corridors.
Police struggled to hold back distraught parents trying to break past a cordon and get to the school.
A soldier stands guard as parents and children leave the site of the attack. Photo: AFP
Ambulances ferried scores of injured people to a nearby hospital.
All seven attackers were killed.
The school in Peshawar is operated by the army and has pupils aged between 10 and 20 years. Although it enrols some civilian students, many of its pupils are children of army officials, the Taliban's intended target.
A Taliban spokesman told the BBC the assault was in response to recent army operations. Hundreds of Taliban fighters are thought to have died in a recent military offensive in North Waziristan and the nearby Khyber area.
A candle-lit vigil was held in Karachi in memory of the victims of the Taliban assault on a Peshawar school. Photo: AFP