Malala Yousafzai, 14, won international recognition for highlighting Taliban atrocities in Swat by blogging for the BBC.

She received the first ever national peace award from the government of Pakistan last year and was nominated for the International Children's Peace Prize by advocacy group KidsRights Foundation in 2011.

"Malala was getting into her school bus after school when two gunmen opened fire on her, injuring her and one of her friends," police official Rasool Shah told AFP.

Provincial information minister Mian Iftikhar Hussain confirmed the shooting in Mingora, the main town of Swat, and blamed the attack on terrorists.

Yousafzai was shot in the forehead and will be taken to Peshawar for further treatment but is stable, said Doctor Taj Mohammed at the Saidu Sharif Medical Complex in Mingora.