Islamabad - At least eight people were killed and six injured on Thursday in a suspected US missile strike in Pakistan's restive tribal region along the border with Afghanistan, security officials and residents said.

Two missiles targeted an Islamic seminary, Sirajul Uloom, in Dandai Darpakhel village, located some 3 kilometres from Miranshah, the main town in North Waziristan tribal district, at around 
2:30 am (2030 GMT).

"The strike demolished a part of the madrassa," said a security official who spoke on condition of anonymity. "Eight bodies have been retrieved from the debris."

A local journalist and tribal elder, Malik Mumtaz, said on the telephone that all those killed and injured were students aged between 12 and 18.

Taliban militants sealed off the area around the seminary following the incident and the injured were moved to the main hospital in Miranshah.

According to Mumtaz, the seminary was set up by Jalaluddin Haqqani, an Afghan Taliban commander who is a close associate of al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden.

It was not immediately clear whether the missiles were fired from aerial or ground platforms.

US pilotless aircraft, so-called drones, have in recent months conducted several strikes in North Waziristan on hideouts of suspected al-Qaeda and Taliban militants carrying out cross-border attacks on US-led international forces in Afghanistan. (dpa)