Malala comfortable and stable at UK hospital

Pakistan's teenage rights activist Malala Yousufzai, who was shot in the head by the Taliban, remains in a "comfortable and stable" condition at a hospital in the United Kingdom, doctors said on Friday.

In a statement, the Queen Elizabeth Hospital Birmingham said Malala's condition this morning was "comfortable and stable".

A team of doctors from both the Queen Elizabeth and Birmingham Children's hospitals was looking after her, the statement said.

"Malala's family remains in Pakistan at this time," the statement said.

The 14-year-old schoolgirl was flown to the UK on Monday following a surgery in Pakistan, during which a bullet lodged near her spine was removed.

Doctors at the Birmingham hospital, with a decade's experience of treating British military casualties, are now planning the reconstructive operations needed to treat her horrific injuries.

The number of support messages on the hospital trust's website has grown to more than 2,300 overnight, the hospital statement said.

The Queen Elizabeth Hospital Birmingham Charity has set up an account within the main hospital fund to support Malala.

Malala, along with two of her classmates, was attacked ten days ago in the restive Swat region of northwest Pakistan as they made their way home from school.

The teenager was treated by neurosurgeons in a Pakistani military hospital and has since been in intensive care. She was transferred to the UK by an air ambulance arranged by the United Arab Emirates.