A 14-year-old Pakistani activist who won international acclaim for speaking out for girls denied education under the Taliban was shot on Tuesday on her way home from school, authorities said.

The Pakistani Taliban claimed responsibility for the attack on ninth-grader Malala Yousafzai, who officials said was shot in the neck by at least one gunman who approached a school bus in Mingora, a city in the Swat valley in the country’s northwest.