'Our classmates were shot in front of us… I felt bullets flying past my head': Boy aged 10 recounts horror of seeing friends gunned down in Pakistani school slaughter as Taliban fighters massacred up to 130 children.
One terrorist blew himself up in a classroom containing 60 children
Teacher set on fire in front of pupils, with the children forced to watch
Army commandos quickly arrived at the scene and exchanged fire
School was stormed by nine gunmen in military fatigues, it was reported
After hours of fighting the terrorists were killed by special forces soldiers
Taliban accepted responsibility for the attack, claiming it 'was just a trailer'
David Cameron described the attack on the school as 'deeply shocking'
The massacre is the worst ever in the deeply troubled region
A 10-year-old boy caught up in the Peshawar school massacre that saw over 130 killed has spoken of his dramatic escape from Taliban gunmen as bullets whizzed past his head - having seen two of his classmates shot dead in front of him.
Nine Taliban gunmen stormed a military school in the north-western Pakistani city of Peshawar, in the worst ever militant attack to hit the troubled region.
Irfan Shah told how he was sitting in his class at 10:30 when he heard the sound of firing outside. It came amid unconfirmed reports that terrorists cut the throats of one child and a teacher.
Shah told MailOnline: 'It was our social studies period. Our teacher first told us that some kind of drill was going on and that we do not need to worry. It was very intense firing. 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.'
He said that the teacher asked the children, part of a class of 33, to run towards the back gate of the school.
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Pakistani snipers take position near the school attacked by Taliban gunmen
Special forces soldiers surrounded the school after it was attacked by nine gunmen
A man comforts his son, who was injured during the attack
Pakistani schoolgirls pray for the victims of the attack, which ended after a nine-hour gun battle
The attack started with the gunmen entering the 500-pupil school - which has students aged 10 to 18
People carry a coffin of a student killed by the Taliban in today's massacre
Taliban gunmen stormed a military school in the north-western Pakistani city of Peshawar
The school on Peshawar's Warsak Road is part of the Army Public Schools and Colleges System, which runs 146 schools nationwide for the children of military personnel and civilians
A Pakistani girl, who was injured in the attack, is rushed to a hospital in Peshawar
A hospital security guard helps a student injured in a shootout at a military school in Peshawar
Pakistani security forces takes up positions on a road leading to the Army Public School
Ambulances drive away from the military run school, which was attacked by the Taliban in the early hours
School was stormed by six gunmen in military fatigues , it was reported
A Pakistani soldier takes up a position above a road near the school
He continued: 'The back gate is around 200 meters from our class room. I tightly held the hand of my friend Daniyal and we both ran towards the back gate. We were weeping. I felt bullets passing by my head twice. It was so terrible.
'We reached back gate in a minute. As we stepped outside the gate, we started weeping again very loudly. An aunt from a nearby house heard us and took us inside her house. We were shivering. She gave us water and comforted us. We stayed there for 15 minutes.
'Our van always parked a few hundred meters away from the school. We then went to our van. The van driver told us that our school fellows who have been murdered in the attack are martyrs and they would go to jannah (paradise).
'We have been told that two of our class fellows died in the attack. They both were shot in front of all of us.'
The Taliban said they sent the gunmen into the building for revenge.
'We selected the army's school for the attack because the government is targeting our families and females,' said Taliban spokesman Muhammad Umar Khorasani. 'We want them to feel the pain.'
It was reported that one suicide bomber blew himself up in a room containing 60 children and a teacher was set on fire in front of pupils, with the children forced to watch.
The attack started with nine gunmen, disguised as security guards, entering the 500-pupil school - which has students aged 10 to 18 - in the early hours.
The jihadists shot their way into the building and went from classroom to classroom, shooting at random and picking off students one by one.
Army commandos quickly arrived at the scene and exchanged fire with the gunmen. Eye-witnesses described how students cowered under desks as dead bodies were strewn along corridors. News images of the aftermath of the attack showed boys in blood-soaked school uniforms with green blazers being carried from the scene.
After a nine-hour battle Pakistani special forces killed all nine terrorists.
A military source said that seven army personnel, including two officers, were wounded in the fighting.
Amir Sohail Khan, 19, told MailOnline how he was at his college a few kilometres away from the school when he heard about the attack.
He said that went to the main gate of the school around 12:30. He said: 'I heard about it around 11 at my college. Then my uncle gave me a call and asked me to reach the school to check the whereabouts of my young cousins. One is seven and other is nine. It took me more than 45 minutes to reach the spot as army closed down all the roads and streets leading to school.'
He continued: 'I saw a few soldiers trying to encircle a young man who was wearing a similar uniform to them. When soldiers tried to approach him, there was a huge blast. The other guy was one of the terrorists. This was such a horrible scene.
'For a few moments, I couldn't understand what was going on. I saw his body parts flying in the air after the blast. One of the soldiers was badly injured.'
Khan also saw terrorists firing indiscriminately in the class rooms on the second floor of the building.
He said: 'It is a huge double story building. I saw a terrorist getting into a classroom and firing like anything. Then I heard the cries and most of those crying became silent after a few minutes which means either they died or fainted.'
A soldier told him that the kids who had successfully managed to get out of school were in a nearby park.
He added: 'I went there but couldn't find my cousins among those kids. A soldier on told me that they might have died in the attack. I could not even imagine that. After, a few minutes I saw the elder one coming towards the park. I was never so happy and relieved to see him. He was weeping and shivering with fear. I held him to my chest. It was great feeling. Five minutes after him, my younger cousin also appeared. I lost my senses in happiness after seeing him. Our family is blessed. I saw mothers and fathers crying like mad at the gate of the school. I do not believe that we are so blessed.'
Mudassar Abbas, a physics laboratory assistant at the school, said some students were celebrating at a party when the attack began.
'I saw six or seven people walking class-to-class and opening fire on children,' he said.
Mudassir Awan, an employee at the school, said he saw at least six people scaling the walls of the building, but initially thought little of it.
'We thought it must be the children playing some game. But then we saw a lot of firearms with them,' he said.
'As soon as the firing started, we ran to our classrooms. They were entering every class and they were killing the children,' he added.
One of the wounded students, Abdullah Jamal, said he was with a group of 8th, 9th and 10th graders who were getting first-aid instructions and training with a team of Pakistani army medics when the attack began.
When the shooting started, Mr Jamal, who was shot in the leg, 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.
'All the children had bullet wounds. All the children were bleeding,' he added.
Bahramand Khan, director of information for the regional Chief Minister's Secretariat, said at least 126 people were killed and 122 wounded.
'It may rise,' he said, adding that more than 100 of the dead were school children. A local hospital said the dead and wounded it had seen were aged between 10 and 20 years old.
Troops surrounded the building and an operation was underway to rescue children still trapped inside, the army said.
Hours into the siege, at least three explosions were heard inside the high school, and a MailOnline journalist at the scene said he heard heavy gunfire.
A security official speaking on condition of anonymity said two helicopter gunships are on site, but had been prevented from firing on the militants because students and teachers remain inside the building.
Outside, as the helicopters rumbled overhead, police struggled to hold back distraught parents who were trying to break past a security cordon and get into the school.
Akhtar Ali, who works out for the UN, was weeping outside.
He told MailOnline: 'My 14-year-old niece Afaq is inside the school. I don't know if she is alive or dead. I am desperate. I am just waiting in hope. It is agony. '
'My son was in uniform in the morning. He is in a casket now,' wailed one parent, Tahir Ali, as he came to the hospital to collect the body of his 14-year-old son, Abdullah.
'My son was my dream. My dream has been killed.'
MailOnline spoke to Naveed Ahmed, who works at the irrigation department. He said: 'My son Hasid Asmad is 16-years-old, is still inside the school., He took a mobile and called me while I was in the mosque, he was praying down the phone. I have been waiting so many hours for news. My son told that he was being kept safe by the Pakistan army inside. They are taking a picture of them to prove they are safe.
'They have told me that the children are safe in the custody of the army.'
Mrs Humayun Khan, one of the mothers of a student, said with tears in her eyes: 'No body is telling me about my son's whereabouts... I have checked the hospital and he is not there. I am really losing my heart. God forbid may he's not among the students still under custody of terrorists.'
A student who survived the attack said soldiers came to rescue students during a lull in the firing.
'When we were coming out of the class we saw dead bodies of our friends lying in the corridors. They were bleeding. Some were shot three times, some four times,' the student said.
'The men entered the rooms one by one and started indiscriminate firing at the staff and students.'
Zakir Ahmad, who runs an electronics store in Peshawar, has lost his 16-year-old Abdullah and is frantically searching for 12-year-old Hassnain, who is still missing hours after the atrocity.
Crying and barely able to speak, he told MailOnline: 'When I heard there was an attack I ran to the school. I heard firing. I sent my cousins and staff to search the hospitals while I stayed praying at school. Then after an hour I got the call, he just said Abdullah is dead. I have found him in the hospital. I still don't know anything about my boy Hasnain.
Horror: A school boy who was injured in the Taliban attack receives medical treatment at a hospital in Peshawar
Relatives of a student, who was injured during the attack, comfort each other outside Lady Reading Hospital in Peshawar
An armored personnel carrier moves toward the school
Pakistani army troops arrive to take on the Taliban attackers
An army helicopter flies over the Army Public School that was attacked earlier today
'This is a terrible injustice. We are innocent people, by boys are innocents who do not carry guns and bombs. The only justice for me is to find these people who are supporting extremists and hang them in rows. Make them die for what they did.
'My son was such a good boy. Obedient, bright. When he was going to school this morning he came into my room and kissed me.'
Mushtaq Ghani, the spokesman for the provincial government of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, told journalist Aamir Iqbal: 'At least six militants wearing military uniforms entered the school from back wall of the school that is known as 'Army Public School'.
'There is a graveyard attached to back wall of the school that is run by Pakistani Military, most of the students studying in this school were children of military officers.
'Attacking innocent children is the most abominable crime and such an attack will not be accepted at all.
'This can be the reaction of ongoing military operations against terrorists in the North Waziristan area of Pakistan.'
Student Shuja khan claimed that 'the attack took place the time a senior military officer started his address during the function that was going on inside the school'.
He added: 'I am not sure but he was the Corp Commander Peshawar who when he started his speech terrorists opened fire on the students sitting in the function.'
Taliban gunmen stormed a military school in the north-western Pakistani city of Peshawar
A school boy who was injured in the Taliban attack receives medical treatment at a hospital in Peshawar
Taking no chances: Pakistani security forces form a perimeter around the school
A soldier escorts schoolchildren after they were rescued from the Army Public School
Mohammad Khorasani, the spokesman for the Pakistani Taliban group - known as Tehrik-i-Taliban - accepted responsibility for the attack.
He said: 'It's a gift for those who thought they have crushed us in their so called military operation in North Waziristan.
'They [the Pakistani military] were always wrong about our capabilities, We are still able to carry out major attacks. Today was just the trailer.
'Six of our Mujahideen, including three suicide bombers took part in this attack and with the grace of almighty they all executed the plan very accurately.
'We selected the army's school for the attack because the government is targeting our families and females. We want them to feel the pain.'
Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif called the massacre a 'national tragedy' and is on his way to the area. 
People carry the casket of a victim of the Taliban attack, after receiving it from a local hospital in Peshawar
Prime Minister David Cameron today said the Taliban attack on the military school was 'deeply shocking'
Details were sketchy in the unfolding situation and it was unclear what was going on inside the school and if any of the students were taken hostage
Mohammad Khorasani, the spokesman for Pakistani's Taliban Fazal Ullah group, accepted responsibility for the attack
A man talks on a phone, with his arm around a student, during the attack
A plainclothes security officer escorts students rescued from a nearby school
Schoolchildren cross a road as they move away from the military run school
Pakistani rescue workers take out students from an ambulance injured in the shootout
Taliban gunmen took hundreds of students hostage in this military-run school
Heavily armed Pakistani troops arrive at the scene
'It's horrifying that children are being killed simply for going to school,' he said. Prime Minister David Cameron today said the Taliban attack on the military school was 'deeply shocking'.
Education campaigner and Nobel peace prize winner Malala Yousafzai, who was shot by the Taliban, has condemned the 'atrocious and cowardly' attack on a school in Pakistan. She said: 'I am heartbroken by this senseless and cold-blooded act of terror in Peshawar that is unfolding before us.'
'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,' U.S. Ambassador to Pakistan Richard Olson said in a statement.
The Pakistani Taliban have targeted security forces, checkpoints, military bases and airports, but attacks on civilian targets with no logistical significance are relatively rare.
In September, 2013, dozens of people, including many children, were killed in an attack on a church, also in Peshawar.
Meanwhile, Russell Brand faced an online backlash after accusing the U.S. of terrorism as the attack in Pakistan unfolded.
The comedian posted on Twitter a link to a YouTube video in which he speaks to former Guantanamo Bay detainee Moazzam Begg.
Alongside the link he tweeted: 'The people who do 'terror' best are the people who decide what 'terror' is.'
But others on the microblogging website reacted angrily to the self-styled revolutionary, who uses the handle @rustyrockets.
They highlighted how his tweet coincided with news that more than 100 children had been killed in the Taliban assault.
Nate Anderson wrote: 'Bad timing given what's just happened in Pakistan dude. Bad bad timing'.
Colin Wright, a professor of International Relations, added: '@rustyrockets you do talk some crap at times. Not all the time but I'm seeing more and more of it. You tweet this while Pakistan unfolds.'
Another Twitter user Mark Lott wrote: 'I guess you haven't seen the news from Pakistan today yet. @rustyrockets'.
Brand's interview with Moazzam Begg appears to have taken place at his flat in Hoxton, east London.
The YouTube video was titled: 'CIA Torture - Guantanamo Bay Prisoner Lifts Lid: Russell Brand The Trews (E211)'.
Begg, from Birmingham, was held by the U.S. government in Bagram, Afghanistan, and Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, after being arrested in Pakistan in 2002 and was released without charge in 2005.
Russell Brand recently faced criticism on Twitter when he tweeted the mobile phone number of a reporter who had requested an interview.
The Peshawar school massacre came as Pakistani Taliban insurgents launched a massive attack in Afghanistan's eastern Kunar province.
Thousands of militants crossed the border from Pakistan and stormed Dangam district, forcing local security to call in the help of the Afghan National Army, who have so far killed 18 insurgents and wounded 28 others during intense firefights.
About 2,000 insurgents are involved in the battle said Kunar province's police chief, Abdul Habib Saidkhail, who added that almost of those killed or injured were of Pakistani origin.
The Pakistani Taliban is an ally of the better known Taliban over the border in Afghanistan, but operates as an entirely separate organisation.
In September the Pakistani Taliban declared its support for the Islamic State and vowed to send fighters to assist the terror group as it was wages bloody war in Syria and Iraq.
'Oh our brothers, we are proud of you in your victories. We are with you in your happiness and your sorrow,' Pakistani Taliban spokesman Shahidullah Shahid said in a statement issued to mark the Muslim holy festival of Eid al-Adha.
'In these troubled days, we call for your patience and stability, especially now that all your enemies are united against you. Please put all your rivalries behind you,' he added.
'All Muslims in the world have great expectations of you. We are with you, we will provide you with Mujahideen [fighters] with every possible support,' he said.
School children rescued from the attack are taken away by Pakistani soldiers
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