A group of militants stormed a university in northwestern Pakistan on Wednesday, police said, with firing inside the campus still going on and two explosions heard.

Two of the gunmen were killed by security forces after the army moved into the university, Deputy Inspector General Saeed Wazir told Reuters, but other attackers were believed to be at large on the second and third floors of the campus buildings.

Three security guards, one university lecturer and one student were critically wounded but there were no confirmed deaths, Wazir said. He said 70 percent of students had been rescued.

Television channels quoted rescue officials as saying that a chemistry professor had been killed and 50 people wounded in the attack.

The militants, using the cover of thick, wintry fog, scaled the walls of the Bacha Khan University in Charsadda, northwestern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, before entering buildings and opening fire on students and teachers in classrooms and hostels, police said.

"All students have been evacuated from the hostels, but militants are still hiding in different parts of the university and some students and staff are stuck inside," Wazir said.

He said it was unclear how many gunmen were involved.

The Pakistani military's media wing said the army had cordoned off the university with the militants inside and were carrying out air surveillance.

Earlier media reported that three gunmen entered the Bacha Khan University in Charsadda, northwestern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, and opened fire on students and teachers in classrooms and hostels.

Pakistan has killed and arrested hundreds of suspected militants under a counter-terrorism plan enacted after a massacre of school children in December 2014 in its volatile northwest.

Deputy Inspector General Saeed Wazir told Reuters that the number of gunmen was unclear but police had moved into the university and a gunfight with the attackers was under way.

"We launched an operation inside the university and are trying to rescue the students and staff of the institution," Wazir said.

Shabir Khan, a lecturer in the English department, said he was about to leave the hostel for the department when firing began.

"Most of the students and staff were in classes when the firing began," Khan said. "I have no idea about what's going on but I heard one security official talking on the phone to someone and said many people had been killed and injured."




Reuters/TF
Updated (12.45pm)/QH