DHAKA: At least 126 people, mostly children, have been killed in a Taliban assault on an army-run school in the Pakistani city of Peshawar.

The toll was confirmed by provincial minister, says the BBC.

However, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa provincial information minister Mushtaq Ghani tells the media the death toll has reached 130, with a similar number wounded, reports dawn.com.

According to the BBC report, five or six militants are said to have entered the building. Five are reported to have been killed, at least one of them in a suicide blast.

The army says most of the 500 students have been evacuated. It is not clear if any are still inside.

The attack is being seen as one of the worst-ever in Pakistan.

Hundreds of Taliban fighters are thought to have died in a recent military offensive in North Waziristan and the nearby Khyber area.

** Over 100 dead in Pakistan school attack

BDST: 1829 HRS, DEC 16, 2014