Media playback is unsupported on your device Media caption The BBC's Mishal Husain was one of the first broadcasters to go inside the school 
 
 The Pakistani city of Peshawar is burying its dead after a Taliban attack at a school killed at least 132 children and nine staff. 
 
 New images from the school show the brutality of the attack, with pools of blood on the ground and walls covered in pockmarks from hundreds of bullets. 
 
 Mass funerals and prayer vigils for the victims are currently under way. 
 
 Gunmen had walked from class to class shooting students in the Pakistani Taliban's deadliest attack to date. 
 
 Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif declared three days of mourning over the massacre, which has sparked national outrage. 
 
 He also announced an end to the moratorium on the death penalty for terrorism cases, which correspondents say is a move aimed at countering a view held by many Pakistanis that many terror suspects end up evading justice. 
 
 World leaders have also voiced disgust at the attack, which even the Afghan Taliban have criticised. 
 
 Image caption Images taken by a BBC team inside a classroom show the level of destruction 
 
 Image caption An office belonging the school principal was hit by a suicide bomber 
 
 Separately, Pakistan's army says it launched air strikes at militants in the Khyber and North Waziristan areas, although it is not yet clear if this was a direct response to the school attack. An offensive against the militants has been going on since June. 
 
 At the scene: Mishal Husain, BBC News 
 
 It is a very eerie atmosphere. These are premises that should be alive at a time of day like this to the sound of hundreds of children who studied here and began school as normal on Tuesday. But it is desolate now. 
 
 The army has been working through the night to clear the premises of explosives. 
 
 I am standing now at the bottom of the white stone steps that lead up to the auditorium. There are blood stains running right down the steps and towards the auditorium itself. 
 
 There is a child's shoe on one of the steps. The auditorium, where children were taking exams, was one of the places within the school grounds that the militants first targeted. 
 
 As I peer in now, the chairs that the children were sitting on are upturned, the place has been turned upside down and again I can see the blood stains on the floor right around me. 
 
 Mr Sharif also convened a meeting of all parliamentary parties in Peshawar to discuss the response. 
 
 Afghan role 
 
 Meanwhile, Pakistan's army chief General Raheel Sharif is in the Afghan capital, Kabul, on a surprise visit to discuss security co-operation aimed at tackling the Taliban insurgency. 
 
 Pakistani Taliban (TTP) leader Mullah Fazlullah is believed by the Pakistani authorities to be hiding in Afghanistan and media reports in Pakistan suggest the school attack may have been co-ordinated from Afghanistan. 
 
 But the TTP said the attack had been masterminded by its military chief in the Peshawar region, who it said had been in touch with the gunmen throughout the assault. 
 
 A TTP spokesman told the BBC they had deliberately killed older pupils and not targeted "small children". 
 
 BBC correspondents say the Taliban statement is being seen as damage limitation after the attack was universally condemned in Pakistan for its brutality. 
 
 The TTP also repeated its earlier claim that only six attackers were sent, contradicting official accounts that seven gunmen were killed. The militants say the attack was revenge for the army's campaign against them, and that they chose the school as a target because their families had also suffered heavy losses. 
 
 Scenes of devastation 
 
 Reporters visiting the school for the first time saw pools of blood marking the floor and torn notebooks, clothing and shoes among the debris. 
 
 "This is not a human act,'' military spokesman Major General Asim Bajwa said during a tour of the school, the Associated Press reports. "This is a national tragedy." 
 
 Image copyright AP Image caption Upturned chairs and blood stains left in the wake of the attack at the school's auditorium 
 
 Image copyright EPA Image caption Funerals for the victims began hours after the attack on Tuesday and continued on Wednesday 
 
 Image copyright AP Image caption Many schools in Pakistan closed as a mark of respect, with those remaining open holding special prayers 
 
 Seven Taliban attackers wearing bomb vests cut through a wire fence to gain entry to the school, before launching an attack on an auditorium where children were taking an exam. 
 
 Gunmen then went from room to room at the military-run school, shooting pupils and teachers where they found them in a siege that lasted eight hours, survivors say. 
 
 A total of 125 people were wounded at Peshawar's Army Public School, which teaches boys and girls from both military and civilian backgrounds. All seven attackers were killed, while hundreds of people were evacuated. 
 
 Image copyright AFP Image caption Some wounded students remain at the main hospital in Peshawar 
 
 Image copyright AFP Image caption Soldiers are guarding the gates of the school in Peshawar after the siege 
 
 Image copyright Getty Images Image caption There was anger at this candlelit vigil for the victims in Karachi, Pakistan 
 
 Mohammad Hilal, a student in the 10th grade, was shot three times in his arm and legs when the gunmen stormed the school auditorium. 
 
 "I think I passed out for a while. I thought I was dreaming. I wanted to move but felt paralysed. Then I came to and realised that actually two other boys had fallen on me. Both of them were dead," he told the BBC. 
 
 Zulfiqar Ahmad, 45, the head of the mathematics department who was shot four times during the attack told the BBC he did not believe any of the 18 students in his class had survived. 
 
 The victims are also being mourned elsewhere, with India's parliament observing a minute's silence in their honour. 
 
 India's Prime Minister Narendra Modi offered his country's "deepest condolences". 
 
 Mr Sharif pledged to avenge a "national tragedy unleashed by savages". 
 
 Malala Yousafzai, the 17-year-old who was shot by the Pakistani Taliban for championing girls' rights to education, also condemned "these atrocious and cowardly acts". 
 
 Image copyright AP Image caption School pupil Mohammad Baqair lost his mother, a teacher, in the attack 
 
 Pakistani embassies worldwide have lowered their flags to half-mast and opened books of condolences. 
 
 Image copyright AFP Image caption Some of the injured were carried to hospital in people's arms 
 
 Deadly attacks in Pakistan 
 
 Image copyright AFP 
 
 16 December 2014: Taliban attack on school in Peshawar leaves at least 141 people dead, 132 of them children 
 
 22 September 2013: Militants linked to the Taliban kill at least 80 people at a church in Peshawar, in one of the worst attacks on Christians 
 
 10 January 2013: Militant bombers target the Hazara Shia Muslim minority in the city of Quetta, killing 120 at a snooker hall and on a street 
 
 28 May 2010: Gunmen attack two mosques of the minority Ahmadi Islamic sect in Lahore, killing more than 80 people 
 
 18 October 2007: Twin bomb attack at a rally for Benazir Bhutto in Karachi leaves at least 130 dead. Unclear if Taliban behind attack 
 
 Media playback is unsupported on your device Media caption The Taliban has a history of targeting large crowds of civilians in Pakistan 
 
 In Afghanistan itself, the local Taliban described the school attack as un-Islamic and said they were sending condolences to the families of the victims. 
 
 The Afghan Taliban are currently stepping up their own attacks in Afghanistan and share roots with the Pakistani Taliban and usually share the same ideology too, the BBC's Mike Wooldridge reports from Kabul. 
 
 Hundreds of Taliban fighters are thought to have died in the recent Pakistan army offensive in the Khyber area and North Waziristan, regions close to the Afghan border. ||||| Breaking News Emails Get breaking news alerts and special reports. The news and stories that matter, delivered weekday mornings. 
 
 / Updated 
 
 PESHAWAR, Pakistan — Pakistan was plunged into mourning Tuesday after Taliban militants in suicide vests laid siege to a school, massacring 132 children and 10 teachers during eight hours of sheer terror. In total, 145 people were killed, including three soldiers, officials said. 
 
 Those who survived emerged with stories of horror — of gunmen shooting indiscriminately into crowds or killing youngsters one by one. 
 
 "One of my teachers was crying, she was shot in the hand and she was crying in pain,'' Shahrukh Khan, 15, who was shot in both legs but survived, told Reuters. "One terrorist then walked up to her and started shooting her until she stopped making any sound. 
 
 "All around me my friends were lying injured and dead.'' 
 
 A military source told NBC News that the attackers were wearing police uniforms and suicide vests. 
 
 "They burnt a teacher in front of the students in a classroom,” he said. “They literally set the teacher on fire with gasoline and made the kids watch." 
 
 The government of Pakistan declared three days of mourning for the lives lost. 
 
 Maj. Gen. Asim Bajwa, a military spokesman, told NBC News that at least 132 children were killed in the attack, along with 10 staff from the school — including the principal. Seven militants were killed and seven special forces soldiers were injured. 
 
 "They didn't take any hostages initially and started firing in the hall," Bajwa also told a press conference. He told NBC News that they had enough ammunition and rations to have kept up the siege for days. 
 
 At a hospital near the school, blood stained the floors. Crying relatives roamed the wards and searched operating rooms, desperately searching for their sons and daughters. 
 
 One room at at the Central Military hospital was filled with teenagers who had bullet wounds, shrapnel embedded in their flesh and burns. 
 
 A doctor, Brig. Muhammad Waqar, said his son attends the school and he watched with dread as victim after victim was brought in 
 
 "I was waiting for him to turn up dead in an ambulance," he said. "I wanted to grab a gun and go to the school." 
 
 The Pakistani Taliban have claimed responsibility for the attack, which Pakistani officials said appeared to be aimed at the children of senior military personnel. 
 
 Uniformed militants struck shortly before 11 a.m. local time (1 a.m. ET) when about 1,000 students — in grades one through 10 — and teachers were believed to be inside. 
 
 "We were standing outside the school and firing suddenly started and there was chaos everywhere and the screams of children and teachers," said Jamshed Khan, a school bus driver. 
 
 "The gunmen entered class by class and shot some kids one by one," one student who was in the Army Public School in Peshawar at the time told local media. 
 
 As the siege continued and Pakistani security forces battled to stop the assault, five "heavy" explosions were heard from the school at around 5 a.m. ET. Bombs planted by the attackers slowed rescue efforts, a military official said, and the massacre was not declared over until after 9 a.m. ET. 
 
 Wounded student Abdullah Jamal told The Associated Press he was getting first-aid instructions and training with a team of Pakistani army medics when the violence began for real. When the shooting started, Jamal 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. He had been shot in the leg. 
 
 Hours after all the children had been removed from the school, soldiers angrily roamed the campus. 
 
 "It's interesting that they came through this graveyard," said one officer, pointing to a cemetery adjacent to the school. "It's sad. They stepped over the graves of the dead to create more death." 
 
 President Barack Obama slammed the attack and said America stands with the people of Pakistan and its government's efforts to fight terrorism. 
 
 "By targeting students and teachers in this heinous attack, terrorists have once again shown their depravity," he said in a statement. 
 
 As the carnage played out in Peshawar, Pakistan’s military carried out 10 airstrikes in the Khyber region, between Peshawar and the Afghanistan border, based on “actionable intelligence” according to a spokesman. 
 
 The Pakistani Taliban has vowed to attack government targets as it fights off a huge army operation in the country's tribal region. 
 
 Taliban spokesman Muhammad Umar Khorasani told Reuters his group was responsible for the attack. "Our suicide bombers have entered the school, they have instructions not to harm the children, but to target the army personnel," he said. 
 
 Reuters and The Associated Press contributed to this report. ||||| ISLAMABAD (AP) — Authorities made several arrests in the case of the Taliban school attack that killed 148 in the northwestern city of Peshawar, on Sunday, officials said. 
 
 "Quite a few suspects who were facilitators in one way or the other have been taken into custody," Interior Minister Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan said, adding that the interrogations were "moving ahead in a positive manner." He did not disclose their identities or say how many they were. 
 
 Seven Taliban gunmen wearing explosives belts stunned the world on Tuesday by storming into the military run school and slaughtering 148 people, including 132 students. Another nearly 121 students were wounded in the ensuing eight-hour siege of the school, located in an area where many military families live. 
 
 The group claims it fights to establish a ruling system based on its own harsh brand of Islam. It has killed thousands over nearly a decade. 
 
 The Taliban say they attacked the school in revenge for an army operation against them in North Waziristan, launched in mid-June. The army says it has so far killed over 1,200 militants in the operation. 
 
 The government bombed the militants' hideouts in country's tribal area along the Afghan border in response, and also lifted a ban on the execution of convicted terrorists. 
 
 Over the weekend, it executed six men convicted on terrorism charges. 
 
 Two of the convicts were hanged Friday, and another four on Sunday, according to two Pakistani government officials who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to brief reporters. 
 
 All six belonged to local Pakistani militant groups who had turned against the state, and were convicted for involvement in two attempts to assassinate former President Pervez Musharraf. One was also convicted of leading a militant siege of Pakistani army headquarters in garrison city of Rawalpindi in 2009. 
 
 Local militants have threatened attacks to avenge the hanged men. 
 
 Khan, the minister, said Pakistan was at war with the militants. He appealed to the nation to help authorities in a countrywide crackdown on the insurgents. 
 
 ___ 
 
 Associated Press Writer Zaheer Babar in Lahore, Pakistan contributed to this report. ||||| Image caption Pakistani police searched the area around the school in Peshawar on Sunday 
 
 Police in Pakistan say they have arrested several people suspected of involvement in last week's Peshawar school massacre. 
 
 Pakistan's interior minister said the men were "facilitators" in the attack, which left 141 people dead, including 132 children. 
 
 Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan added that intelligence indicated another attack was in the planning. 
 
 The Pakistani Taliban says it attacked the military-run school. 
 
 All seven attackers were reportedly killed. The Taliban said the raid was in revenge for an army offensive in the north-western region near the border with Afghanistan. 
 
 After the attack, the country lifted a moratorium on its use of the death penalty and has since executed six men. 
 
 'Inhuman counter-attack' 
 
 Mr Khan said: "We are receiving intelligence from across the country that the militants are getting ready for another savage and inhuman counter-attack." 
 
 He said that he could not yet divulge the number or identity of the men. 
 
 Image caption Labourers are building a wall at the school attacked in Peshawar 
 
 Image caption Thousands of people protested against the Peshawar school attack across Pakistan on Sunday 
 
 Image caption Pakistani Christians prayed for the victims of the school attack in Peshawar on Sunday 
 
 Thousands of Pakistanis visited the army-run school on Sunday to mourn those killed. 
 
 Pakistan executed four convicts in Faisalabad on Sunday. They were the second set of prisoners to face the death penalty since the lifting of the moratorium. 
 
 The four men were convicted of involvement in a plot to assassinate then President Pervez Musharraf in 2003. 
 
 One of those executed, Akhlas Akhlaq, had dual Pakistani-Russian citizenship. 
 
 Three other men were identified by Pakistan's media as Ghulam Sarwar, Zubair Ahmed and Rashid Tipu. 
 
 Two men were also executed on Friday. 
 
 Pakistan imposed a de facto death penalty moratorium in 2008. 
 
 The new executions come despite calls by the UN not to resume them.
– "We will take revenge for each and every drop of our children's blood," Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif vowed as funerals began for 132 children slaughtered in a Taliban attack on a school in Peshawar yesterday. Sharif said there would be three days of national mourning for the massacre at a military-run school, in which 10 staff members were killed, as well as all seven attackers, the BBC reports. Sharif also said he would reinstate the death penalty for terrorism. More: The attack was condemned worldwide, with Pakistan's archrival India, whose president called the attack "a senseless act of unspeakable brutality," observing two minutes of silence in schools, reports the AP. Even the Taliban in Afghanistan spoke out against the atrocity, calling it "un-Islamic." There are signs that the attackers—some of whom reportedly spoke in Arabic to each other—had intended to stay for a long siege, with some of them carrying stores of food, the New York Times reports. A security official, however, says they never attempted to take any hostages. "They were there to kill, and this is what they did," he says. One official tells the Guardian that the attackers accessed the school via an unguarded back wall. They may have parked their vehicle next to it and then just climbed on the roof of the vehicle and over the wall. A Pakistani Taliban spokesman says the attack was revenge for a military offensive against the militants in areas including North Waziristan, where he says hundreds of innocent people have been killed. The country's defense minister tells CNN that the country will not back off from the offensive, but that the slaughter is another example of the sacrifices Pakistan has made in its battle against the militants. "The smaller the coffin, the heavier it is to carry," he says. "It's a very, very tragic day."