Associated Press

Peshawar, Jan 28: Gunmen on Monday took hostage about 30 students and teachers at a high school in volatile northwestern Pakistan, police said.

Security forces surrounded the village school near the town of Bannu and police were negotiating with the gunmen, believed to number five or six, said district police chief Dar Ali Khattak.

The standoff began after the gunmen abducted a health official in a neighboring district and were chased by police, said Liaqat Khan, another local police official.

The gunmen eventually freed the official but took refuge inside the school, and are now demanding safe passage in return for freeing the students and teachers, he said.

An intelligence official, who requested anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to the media, said that two gunmen were killed and one policeman was wounded in a firefight during the chase.

Officials could not immediately identify the gunmen or say why they had abducted the health official. Interior Minister Hamid Nawaz described them as ''terrorists.''

Bannu lies near the volatile tribal region of North Waziristan, a stronghold of Taliban militants near the Afghan border.

Police estimated there were about 25 students and five teachers held hostage, but Nawaz said there were between 200 and 250 children inside the school at Wali Dar village. It was not immediately possible to reconcile the different accounts.