At least 126 people were killed and 122 injured in an attack by Taliban militants on a Pakistani secondary school yesterday.

And director of information for the Chief Minister’s Secretariat Bahramand Khan warned that the death toll may still rise.

Mr Khan said more than 100 of the dead were schoolchildren.

Provincial Chief Minister Pervez Khattak added that around another 100 students had been wounded.

Hospital officials said that at least one of the fatalities was a teacher and one security official was also among the dead.

Taliban gunmen had stormed the military-run school in the city of Peshawar in the highest-profile militant attack to hit the troubled region in months.

The attack began in the morning hours, with the gunmen entering the school and shooting at random, said police officer Javed Khan.

Army commandos had killed all six Taliban fighters, he added.

The Pakistani military said in a statement that a rescue operation was still underway in the early afternoon and that most of the students and the staff had been evacuated.

The school is located on the edge of a military base in Peshawar, but the bulk of the students are civilian.

Taliban spokesman Mohammed Khurasani claimed responsibility for the attack in a phone call to local media, saying that the six suicide bombers had carried out the attack in revenge for the killings of Taliban members.

“The army will fight until terrorism is rooted out… this fight will continue,” pledged Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif.