Pakistani officials say siege over Death toll rising in Taliban attack on school

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Pakistani civil society members take part in a candle light vigil for the victims of a school attack …
PESHAWAR, Pakistan (AP) — Pakistani officials say the siege at a Pakistani school is over, and authorities are sweeping the area.

Three Pakistani officials say the operation to clear the Peshawar military-run school has ended.

They all spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to the media.

At least 126 people, most of them children, died when Taliban gunmen attacked the school in the morning.

At least 130 people, including 80 children, have died in a horrific attack by Pakistani Taliban fighters (TTP) on a military-run school in Peshawar in Pakistan's northwest. Several explosions and gunfire rung out as six armed men attacked the Army Public School on Tuesday morning, in one the bloodiest attacks in Pakistan's history. Officials  told Al Jazeera that all six attackers were killed in the operation and that the death toll was likely to rise. Timeline of Attack 05:30 GMT - Attack began when a group of six attackers, reportedly in military uniforms, entered the school 07:11 GMT: TTP claims responsibility. The gunmen were reportedly under orders to shoot older students 07:25 GMT - Evacuation of children and teachers begins with a rescue process underway.Nearby schools start closing down 10:47 GMT - Reports say as many as 10 loud explosions heard at the school. Reporters say the operation underway is reaching a climax 12:35 GMT - 11 more teachers rescued from the school 13:14 GMT -  Another injured school kid succumbs to his wounds at Leady Reading Hospital in Peshawar, raising the death toll to 131 14:12 GMT - Last gunman killed. Operation over Al Jazeera's Kamal Hyder, reporting from Peshawar, said  "most of the younger pupils escaped the school, but the senior students were not so lucky". The deadly attack triggered shock and outrage across the world. Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif said it was a "national tragedy" and said those killed were "my children". Shell-shocked survivors described the attack as nothing short of mayhem. The attackers came dressed in paramilitary uniforms looking for people to kill. One survivor, Shahrukh Khan, 16, shot in both legs. said he managed to survive after playing dead. "The man with big boots kept on looking for students and pumping bullets  into their bodies. I lay as still as I could and closed my eyes, waiting to get  shot again," Khan said from the trauma ward at the Lady Reading hospital in Peshawar. The Pakistan Taliban claimed responsibility for the attack.  Muhammad Khorasani, TTP spokesperson, told Al Jazeera that six suicide bombers had been sent to the school. He said the attackers had been given orders to allow the youngest students to leave but to kill the rest. The attack was in retaliation for an ongoing Pakistan Army operation against the TTP and its allies in the North Waziristan tribal area, Khorasani said. The TTP said many of their family members had been killed in the campaign, and said the attack on the school was in revenge for those deaths. "Many TTP members have lost their family members and they have said they want to inflict pain," Al Jazeera's Kamal Hyder said. "But many ordinary people put their children in military schools because of the relatively higher standard of education, so normal people have been hit as well by this."   Analysis: Peshawar school attack  Correspondent Asad Hashim Pakistan has seen tens of thousands of civilians killed in attacks by the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) and its allies in recent years, but Tuesday’s gun-and-bomb attack on a school in the heart of Peshawar, resulting in the deaths of more than 130 people, mostly children, has left the nation numb. Tuesday’s attack, which the TTP said in a statement was explicitly “in retaliation against” the military’s ongoing Operation Zarb-e-Azb in North Waziristan, can be seen, perhaps, as a sign of the group’s desperation. Unable to hit high-value government or military targets, the TTP has been reduced to targeting a school, one that is only nominally army-affiliated, as a sign of its ability to hit civilian targets. The school itself is a soft target, with relatively low security, even though it is located in a high-security zone of central Peshawar. But by killing scores of children, the TTP is unlikely to win itself much public support, with the backlash from the attack seeing a marked unity amongst Pakistanis in rejecting this form of violence. The indignation of the Pakistani public at this targeting of children seems also to have overridden any fear the TTP was attempting to sow with such a large-scale strike. In a country where public support for militancy has often allowed space for the TTP and likeminded groups to operate, this is certainly significant.   Hostages evacuated The Army Public School had about 500 students and teachers present, when the attack started, military officials said. The attack began at about 10:30am local time (05:00 GMT). A heavy contingent of security forces arrived at the school shortly after the attack began and launched the rescue operation. The army said in a statement that many hostages had been evacuated but did not say how many. The Pakistani military began Operation Zarb-e-Azb against the TTP and its allies on June 15, and says that it has so far retaken larges areas of territory from the group, killing more than 1,270. The army is also carrying out a military operation in Khyber Agency, which borders Peshawar, where it says it has killed at least 179 fighters. "This is a soft target. No one would expect a school to be attacked and children would be involved," our correspondent said. "This will only strengthen the public's resolve to carry on supporting the army." Asad Hashim contributed to this report from Islamabad.