Gunmen free 250 Pakistani school children

Islamabad: Gunmen who took up to 250 Pakistani school children hostage in a northwestern town on Monday freed them all and surrendered to tribal elders, a government spokesman said.

Interior ministry spokesman Javel Iqbal Cheema said none of the children were hurt.

Cheema said the gunmen were members of a kidnap gang but government officials and police had earlier said there were about seven Islamist militants holding the children in the school in Bannu town.

The gunmen fled into the school in the town in North West
Frontier Province and took the children hostage after they had
kidnapped a health department official and his driver, police
said.

Police chased the gunman and one militant was killed in a
clash before the rest of them fled into the school, police
said. The health official and his driver were freed.