30 confirmed dead as gunmen stormed Pakistan campus

• 
• At least 30 people have been killed after gunmen attacked the Bacha Khan university campus in Charsadda, north-west Pakistan.

• The gunmen entered the campus at about 9.30am local time (4.30am GMT), apparently using the cover of thick morning fog, and opened fire on students and teachers in classrooms and accommodation blocks. A gun battle between the attackers and Pakistan security forces ensued.

• Reports said there were four gunmen wearing suicide bomb vests. The attack was claimed by Tehreek-e-Taliban, a Pakistani militant group.

• About three hours after the attack began, the Pakistani army said the attackers were contained in two university blocks and that four of them had been killed.

• Witnesses report a much higher death toll than that given officially. A 23-year-old student said he counted 56 bodies and saw gunmen shooting male and female students “without discrimination”.

• 
• About three hours after the attack started, the army said the campus was quiet as soldiers conducted a block-by-block search. Four attackers were killed, including two who were shot dead by snipers, it said.

• Pakistan’s prime minister, Muhammad Nawaz Sharif, said he was “deeply grieved” over the attack, and vowed to fight to the end and destroy “the menace of terrorism”.

• After one Pakistani Taliban spokesman claimed responsibility for the attack another is reported to have condemned it, pointing to possible splits in Tehrik-e-Taliban, according to the Guardian’s Jason Burke.
• The Guardian