Gunmen briefly seized control of a high school in northwestern Pakistan on Monday, officials said, holding more than two dozen students and teachers hostage before surrendering to tribal negotiators in exchange for safe passage from the area. The six gunmen gave themselves up after a five-hour standoff, with security forces ringing the school, Interior Ministry spokesman Javed Iqbal Cheema said. One negotiator, former lawmaker Shar Abdul Aziz, said in return for releasing the captives and giving up their weapons, the gunmen received safe passage and left. Local police declined to comment on that report.

The gunmen barged into the school near the town of Bannu after a chase and firefight with police that killed a seventh gunman and wounded a policeman.

The chase began after they abducted the health chief of a neighboring district and two of his relatives, who were later freed, also unharmed.

"It was incidental that those criminals entered the school," President Pervez Musharraf told a news conference during a visit to London. "It has been resolved peacefully."

Cheema described the gunmen as "criminals" rather than Islamic militants.

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

Aziz said the gunmen threatened to kill the children, teachers and themselves if anyone attacked them, so negotiations were held to end the standoff without further bloodshed.

There were conflicting reports on the number of children and teachers who had been held inside the school. Aziz said there were 315 children and 10 teachers, but local police chief Hamza Mehsud said only 25 children and seven teachers were detained inside a single classroom.

Cheema could not immediately be reached for comment on Aziz's report that the gunmen had been set free. Earlier he said they were being held by the tribal mediators who were negotiating with police and the local government.

"The administration wants to take hold of the criminals but there are some traditions which have to be taken care of," Cheema told Geo television without elaborating.

Written By RIAZ KHAN