Taliban gunmen have killed 126 people, including at least 84 children, and are still holding many hostage in a school attack in Peshawar, Pakistan.
Six men stormed the army-run school, according to military officials, and soldiers surrounded the building.
Around 500 children and teachers were believed to be inside, with many students taken to local hospitals in a critical condition. At least 122 people have been injured in the siege.
The army said it did not know how many teachers and children are still being held hostage by the militants.
Police were struggling to hold back distraught parents trying to break past a cordon and get to the school when three loud explosions went off, police officials said.
Video and photos showed other young children in their green uniforms being led away from the school by soldiers and an army helicopter flying overhead.
"Rescue operation by troops under way. Exchange of fire continues. Bulk of student(s) and staff evacuated. Reports of some children and teachers killed by terrorist," the army said in a brief English-language statement.
Gunmen and suicide bombers targeted the school while an exam was taking place, said one teacher.
"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 our pain."
A school bus driver said: "We were standing outside the school and firing suddenly started and there was chaos everywhere and the screams of children and teachers."
The school is located on the edge of a military cantonment in Peshawar, but the majority of the students are civilian.
Pakistan's prime minister Nawaz Sharif, who is travelling to the area, called the massacre a "national tragedy".
One of the wounded students, Abdullah Jamal, said that 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 violence began for real.
When the shooting started, Abdullah, 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," Abdullah added.
A Taliban spokesman told the Reuters news agency the attack was "revenge" for an army offensive against the group in North Waziristan.
"Our suicide bombers have entered the school, they have instructions not to harm the children, but to target the army personnel," he said.
British Prime Minister David Cameron condemned the attack and called it "deeply shocking".
"It's horrifying that children are being killed simply for going to school," he said.
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