ISLAMABAD — People in Pakistan are praising a teenage boy who residents and police say died this week while trying to stop a suicide bomber who was targeting his school.

Local police official Raheem Khan said Thursday that 17-year-old Aitzaz Hasan died Monday in a remote village in Hangu, a district in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province.

Khan said a teacher at the school told investigators that he saw Hasan chasing the attacker and then saw the attacker detonate the bomb that killed the teen.

Local resident Miqdar Khan said people in the violence-prone district were hailing the teen as a hero.

The area where Hasan lived is home to many members of the minority Shiite Muslim sect who have often been killed by militants who view them as heretics.