126 children, others slaughtered in Pakistan school attack

At least 126 people, mostly children, have been killed in a Taliban attack on the Army Public School and Degree College in northwest Pakistan at about 10 a.m. on Tuesday.

Taliban militants stormed the school, located in Peshawar, and gunned down over 126 people including pupils, teachers and a paramilitary soldier.

Pervez Khattak, the Chief Minister of the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, where Peshawar is located, said most of those who were killed are between the ages of 12 and 16.

A worker at the school, Mudassir Awan, told that the attack started at 10:00 local time (05:00 GMT)

He said he saw six people scaling the walls of the school "a lot of firearms with them."

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

Officials are not certain how many of the hundreds of students are still alive but the Taliban reportedly said "300 to 400 people are under the custody of the suicide bombers."

One of the attackers blew himself up while a second one was killed during a gunfire exchange with security forces.

CNN describes the attack as one the one of the country's deadliest in recent weeks.