At Least 19 Killed As Gunmen Storm University

Attackers burst into classrooms and open fire at a university in northwest Pakistan, killing at least one teacher.

Four of the attackers are known to have been killed at the campus building in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, in the country's northwest.

Pakistan University Attacked

Militants wielding AK-47s used a cover of thick, wintry fog to scale the walls of the Bacha Khan University in the town of Charsadda, about 30km (18 miles) from the city of Peshawar.

They then went into university buildings and began to open fire on teachers and students in classrooms before engaging in a three-hour gunbattle with police and soldiers. 

The attack happened at Charsadda in northwestern Pakistan

Explosions were heard inside and TV pictures showed heavily armed security personnel heading into the compounds as female students ran for their lives.

At the university gates, distraught relatives of those being taught inside anxiously waited for news.

Regional police chief Saeed Wazir said most of the victims were shot dead at a hostel for male students on the campus site.

Officials said around 50 had been wounded and the number killed could rise to as high as 40.

It is not known if the 19 included the four dead attackers.

At least one lecturer is among those who lost their lives.

Witnesses said the teacher, chemistry professor Dr Syed Hamid Husain, attempted to shoot back at the militants.

Geology student Zahoor Ahmed said: "He was holding a pistol in his hand.

"Then I saw a bullet hit him. I saw two militants were firing. I ran inside and then managed to flee by jumping over the back wall."

Another told TV reporters: "We saw three terrorists shouting, 'Allah is great!' and rushing towards the stairs of our department.

"One student jumped out of the classroom through the window. We never saw him get up."

"We saw (the chemistry professor) fall down and as the terrorists entered the (registrar's) office we ran away."

The university teaches more than 3,000 students and was hosting an extra 600 visitors on Wednesday for a poetry recital, according to its vice chancellor Fazal Rahim.

Umar Mansoor, a commander in the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) militant group told AFP: "Our four suicide attackers carried out the attack on Bacha Khan University today."

He added that the attack was in retaliation for a military offensive against extremists in tribal areas, but an official spokesman for the group later appeared to go against the commander by describing it as "un-Islamic".

It comes a little over a year after Taliban gunmen killed 144 children at a military-run school in nearby Peshawar.

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