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A school was attacked by the Taliban in Pakistan this morning, and officials say that at least 145 people were killed. Tragically, over 100 of the victims were children in what's being called the deadliest Taliban attack the country has sustained.
According to the New York Times, as many as nine militants carried out the attack at the school in Peshawar. Furthermore, the Times described the details of the attack:
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The militants’ assault started at about 10 a.m., when nine gunmen disguised as paramilitary soldiers climbed the rear wall of the Army Public School and Degree College, a school of about 2,500 pupils, including boys and girls, a senior security official said.
The attackers stormed through the school, lobbing hand grenades and indiscriminately shooting. In a chilling echo of the Beslan school siege in Russia in 2004, some of the worst violence occurred in the school’s main auditorium, where an army instructor had been giving children first aid lessons, officials and students said.
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The Times adds that a representative for the Pakistani Taliban claimed responsibility for the attack, explaining that it was in response to "the military’s offensive against militants in the North Waziristan tribal district."
BBC News reports that all of the attackers were killed during a gun fight with police. Survivors of the siege have been rushed to area hospitals.
[via BBC News and New York Times]