19 Killed, 50 injured in Millitants Attack in Bacha Khan University Campus Charsadda, Pakistan

An attack by suspected Taliban militants on a university in north-west Pakistan has killed at least 19 people and injured 50. An army official said firing had stopped several hours after the attack but troops were still searching Bacha Khan University campus in Charsadda. Four attackers were killed, the army reported, as the Taliban said four of its suicide attackers were involved.

Taliban gunmen killed 130 students at a school in nearby Peshawar in 2014.

Charsadda is about 50km (30 miles) from the city. Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif said in a statement, quoted by Reuters news agency: "We are determined and resolved in our commitment to wipe out the menace of terrorism from our homeland."

Wednesday's attackers struck at around 09:30 local time (04:30 GMT), reportedly climbing over the back wall under cover of the thick winter fog.

Intense gunfire and explosions were heard as security guards fought the attackers. "I personally heard two explosions near hostel number one," an unidentified eyewitness told Pakistan's Geo TV. "We don't know if they were suicide bombers or grenades. I personally saw two explosions and smoke was rising."

Students and staff ran to find cover in toilets and examination halls.

Geology student Zahoor Ahmed said his chemistry lecturer had warned him not to leave the building after the first shots were fired.

"He was holding a pistol in his hand," he was quoted by AFP news agency as saying.

"Then I saw a bullet hit him. I saw two militants were firing. I ran inside and then managed to flee by jumping over the back wall."

Another student told television reporters he was in class when he heard gunshots.

"We saw three terrorists shouting, 'Allah is great!' and rushing towards the stairs of our department," he said.

"One student jumped out of the classroom through the window. We never saw him get up."

Nineteen bodies were taken to a local mortuary.

A Taliban spokesman told AFP news agency the attack was in response to a military offensive against militant strongholds.

An assistant professor at the university, Dr Shakoor, told the BBC he had turned back from the main gate of the campus after being told it was under attack.

Most of the students and members of the faculty would probably still not have arrived when the attack started, he said.

He saw people coming out through the main gate, apparently because the attackers had entered the campus from the back.

The university is located in an open area some distance east of Charsadda town, surrounded by open agricultural fields, and is therefore a soft target, the BBC's Ilyas Khan reports.

Bacha Khan is a new university, founded in 2012, its website says.

Just days ago, some schools in Peshawar were closed by the authorities amid reports that militants were planning an attack.