Three Dead as Teenage Gunman Opens Fire at Philippine High School

A teenage gunman shot dead two students and wounded eight others at a high school in the southern Philippines on Friday before turning the weapon on himself, in the third deadly campus shooting to strike the country since June.

The two deceased victims were 14-year-old pupils at Banga National High School in the town of Banga, in the southern province of Mindanao, according to Albert Palencia, the local mayor. Four of the eight injured remained in critical condition, he told the BBC.

The attack unfolded shortly after lunch, when the 16-year-old suspect warned friends to go home. He said he would be executing his plan after the midday break. His classmates laughed, the mayor told Reuters, because the boy was known as a joker. He then began firing at students, hitting ten before killing himself.

The education department said it was deeply concerned by the incident and that its immediate priority was the safety and well-being of learners, teachers and school personnel. Officials added that they were coordinating with authorities to verify the details and provide support, and urged the public to remain calm and refrain from sharing unverified information while the investigation continued.

Classes have been suspended at all levels across the entire municipality of Banga. The Philippine Red Cross said it was alerted at 14:00 local time, equivalent to 06:00 GMT, and dispatched an ambulance with four paramedics to provide life-saving assistance. Police remain at the scene, local media reported.

Gun crime is not uncommon in the Philippines, which has one of the highest rates of gun ownership in the region. School shootings, broadly speaking, are rare. Friday's bloodshed nonetheless marks the third deadly campus attack in four months. In June, three students were killed and others injured when their peers opened fire at a high school in the central Philippines; investigators believed a grudge over bullying lay behind the attack. In August, a student at a Catholic junior high school in the south shot dead a fellow pupil and later took his own life, having first fired at a teacher and missed.

Reynaldo Tamayo, the governor of South Cotabato, urged adult gun owners to be responsible in storing firearms and to ensure that minors cannot gain access to them. He said a handful of security personnel could not be expected to monitor thousands of students, adding that without collective effort the problem would prove very difficult to address.