Gunshots fired at girls' school in Charsadda after knife-wielding attackers try to scale walls

Teachers say attackers escaped after villagers opened fire on them

PESHAWAR: Two knife-wielding men stormed a girls' high school in the Shabqadar area of Charsadda district in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa (K-P) on Thursday.

“Two men who had knives on them jumped over the wall of Charsadda Government High School No 3 for girls at noon after tearing off gauze wires that covered the school windows,” Nazakat, who is a school teacher, told The Express Tribune.

Residents and a guard opened fire at the school after the men tried to scale the walls, sparking panic, police said.



Meanwhile, a heavy contingent of police and security forces were called in at the scene. However, the attackers reportedly managed to escape.

"Some men were trying to climb the boundary wall of a private school and on seeing them, the school guard opened fire after which the men fled," district police chief Shafiullah Khan told AFP.

Nearby residents also took out their guns and fired gunshots in the air to scare the intruders away from the screaming children, he said.



Police had cordoned off the area and were searching for the suspects, he added.

Taliban militants stormed a school in Peshawar in December last year, killing more than 150 people, mostly children, in Pakistan's worst-ever terror attack.