About 30 people, mostly students, were reported dead after terrorists earlier today stormed a university campus in the northwestern Charsaddah district near the Afghan border. The Pakistani Army has assumed control following a four-hour gun battle with the attacker.

All four attackers were killed in the gunfight, which evoked memories of a similar gun-and-bomb assault on an army-run school in the neighboring city of Peshawar in December 2014 in which over 140 people, mostly students, lost their lives.

According to a tweet by Major-General Asim Saleem Bajwa, a military spokesman, army commandos had since managed to establish control over the campus of Bacha Khan University.

Mopping-up operations, however, were still underway, he added.

Early Wednesday, heavily-armed attackers scaled the rear wall of the campus and opened fire on students and faculty members who had gathered to attend a poetry recital.

Shaukat Yusufzai, information minister for Pakistan’s northwestern Khyber Pakhtunkhawa province, told reporters that over 25 people – including an assistant professor and two female students – had been killed in the attack. Sixty others, he said, had been injured. Local police put the death toll at 19.

Latest reports say al-Qaeda terrorist group has claimed responsibility for the attack.

Turkey’s foreign affairs ministry strongly condemned the attack in a written statement.

The ministry also expressed Turkey’s condolences to the Pakistani government and people and said that Ankara is ready to support Pakistan in its fight against terrorism.

•Additional reports by Anadolu Agency. Photo shows Pakistani soldiers outside the attacked Bacha Khan University.

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