Pakistan massacre: Pupils speak of Peshawar horror

Many of the injured and wounded from Tuesday's attack were taken to Peshawar's Lady Reading Hospital.

Following the siege there were scenes of absolute chaos in some of the hospital's wards.

The BBC managed to get inside the intensive-care unit and speak to some of the students who were able to describe what happened.

One 13-year-old, called Saeed, said he was in the auditorium of the Army Public School when the Taliban struck.

He hid under a chair, but saw gunmen coming and firing. He called his mother on the phone.

Saeed, 13, with his parents at the hospital in Peshawar

She told me she had heard what was happening from the other end of the line as the attack was taking place.

Distraught and shocked, she broke down in tears as she spoke to us.

A man at the hospital whose brother was killed in the Taliban attack

Lying to next to Saeed at the hospital was another pupil, Shahrukh Khan.

The 17-year-old was in a classroom with his friends when the massacre began.

He said a gunman suddenly walked in and started firing randomly. He hid under a desk but saw his friends being shot, once in the head and once in the chest. Two teachers were also killed.

"They killed our classmates and teachers," said Shahrukh.

"The terrorists were in civilian clothes with long beards and long hair with lots of ammunition."

A mother mourns her son who was killed during the Peshawar school attack

The testimonies give a picture of the horror the children endured.

During the siege onlookers were unsure whether all the pupils had been evacuated. That was what many of the parents were worried about.

Some relatives, standing beside their unconscious or injured children in hospital, thanked God that their loved ones were alive.

Others were trying to comfort the pupils from the horrors they had seen.

Sadly, many were left trying to find out if their children would be coming home at all.