By Aamir Latif

KARACHI, Pakistan (AA): At least eight people, including seven teachers, were killed on Thursday when gunmen opened fire in a school in northwestern Pakistan, police said.

The shooting occurred at a high school in the remote town of Parachinar, nestled on the border with neighboring Afghanistan.

Mohammad Imran, a senior police officer, told reporters that five teachers and two laborers were killed in the attack.

Earlier local media reported that all seven people killed in the incident were teachers.

Students at the school were taking annual exams when the shooting took place.

Footage screened on local broadcaster Dunya News showed dozens of people gathered in the courtyard of a local government hospital as paramedics were shifting the bodies from ambulances to the emergency section of the facility.

Dubbing the attack as a result of an old land dispute, Mohammad Azam Khan, the acting chief minister of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, said the culprits behind this “heinous act will not be spared.”

He directed the law informing agencies to use all available resources to bring the culprits to justice.

A local police official, requesting anonymity due to restrictions on speaking to the media, told Anadolu that a man from a rival tribe was killed just hours before the school shooting in the town.

He suspected that the shooting in school could be a reaction to the killing.

The police sources said gunmen opened fire in an examination hall of the Government High School of Teri Mangal area killing Syed Hussain, Liaquat Hussain, Syed Ali Shah, Mehdi Hussain, Mohammad Ali, Ali Hussain and another invigilator, reported Dawn.

[Map of Pakistan from CIA Factbook/Public Domain]