Pakistan begins mass funerals for its children

Pakistan on Wednesday began three days of mourning for the 132 children and nine school staff massacred by the Taliban in the country's deadliest ever terror attack, as the world united in revulsion.

Across the country many schools closed as a mark of respect, while those that opened held special prayers for the 141 killed in Tuesday's assault on an army-run school in the northwestern city of Peshawar.

A group of heavily armed militants went from room to room at the school during an eight-hour killing spree claimed by the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) that sparked condemnation worldwide.

Relatives of a student, who was injured during an attack by Taliban gunmen on the Army Public School, comfort each other outside Lady Reading Hospital in Peshawar, December 16, 2014. (Reuters)

Schools, colleges, offices and markets were closed across Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa, the northwestern province of which Peshawar is the capital.

Across the border in India, at the urging of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, schools observed two minutes' silence to honour the dead. (PM Modi Calls Nawaz Sharif, 2-Minute Silence in Indian Schools)

Funerals for the victims, many of whose bodies were pulled from the school still wearing their smart green uniforms drenched in blood, began late on Tuesday and the rest will be carried out on Wednesday.

Soldiers were posted on the roof of the school on Wednesday and local media talked of a regular flow of military vehicles in and out.

Pakistani students pray for the victims of army-run school following an attack there by militants in Karachi on December 17, 2014. (AFP)

Eyewitnesses said the six attackers came in a white van and torched their vehicle before opening fire to scare away onlookers and clambering over a wall to enter the school.

"One of them poured petrol over the vehicle and then set it alight. Then they opened fire in the streets and me along with another person ran away to save our life," said witness Zabihullah, 12.

Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, who described the attack as a "national tragedy unleashed by savages", is due to chair a meeting of political parties in Peshawar to discuss a response to the tragedy.

For the past six months the military has been waging a major offensive against strongholds of the TTP and other militants in the North Waziristan tribal area, close to Peshawar.

The operation has killed more than 1,600 suspected militants and the army has hailed it as a success, saying it has caused serious disruption to insurgents' infrastructure. But the fear of reprisal attacks has been ever-present.

Follow Emirates 24|7 on Google News.