Peshawar attack: Picture of baby's shoe covered in blood is not from school massacre

The photo shows an incident in 2008

This picture, taken in Ashkelon in 2008, shows the same bloody shoe (EPA)

A photographer who took the picture of a bloodied children's shoe that was widely shared on Twitter after the Peshawar school massacre has said he is "horrified" at the way the image is being used.

The photo was circulated with the hashtag #PeshawarAttack and widely described as a symbol of the horrific nature of the attack in which seven Taliban militants killed 132 children during an eight-hour siege.

Devastating pictures have emerged in the aftermath of the attack showing injured children who were inside the building at the time. Others show grieving parents burying the victims of the attack. The picture of the shoe was also shared by many decrying the deaths of the children.

One Twitter user who posted the picture wrote: "A mother put this tiny shoe on her young daughter only for it to be handed back to her like this."

However, it has since emerged that the photograph was taken in May 2008 by an Israeli photographer called Edi Israel after a Palestinian rocket attack in the city of Ashkelon.

"I'm horrified to know that the picture has moved to Pakistan, and that it's being used like that," Mr Israel told the BBC.

The European Pressphoto Agency (EPA) owns the copyright to another photo taken of an identical blood-stained shoe (the main image of the shoe on a pavement used for this article). It says this picture was taken in Ashkelon in 2008 when a rocket was fired from Gaza into Israel, injuring dozens of civilians.