Students who escaped the massacre in the Army Public School said that they had seen bodies of their friends and classmates strewn all over the school and most had received bullets in the head. Doctors say they were shot at point blank range.

Of the 141 dead, 132 were students. A student who was at the first-aid training class said terrorists started shooting the students in their heads at a close range. "They killed our class-fellows and then left us in the main hall. I received a bullet in my foot,' he said.