Student shot dead at high school in southern Philippines

A student was shot dead at a high school in the southern Philippines before the alleged killer took his own life, the local mayor said, in the second school shooting in the South-east Asian nation in two months.

The shooting took ⁠place at a school attached to Ateneo de Zamboanga University in the southern city of ⁠Zamboanga, a Catholic private institution in western Mindanao.

Zamboanga city’s mayor, Khymer Adan Olaso, told radio station DZMM the ‌shooter “managed to enter carrying a high-powered firearm and a .45 caliber pistol”.

“In the video, we see that he first shot at the teacher who was sitting at a table,” Olaso said, referencing a video being circulated by local media.

“It seems he missed, then moved to another room ... he shot another student there, the one who fell. It seems two others were also injured, probably before he killed himself.”

A video, circulated by local media, was seemingly live-streamed on Facebook.

The school separately confirmed there had been two fatalities.

The university president, Ernald Andal, confirmed ‌there was no longer an active shooting and no additional fatalities or reported injuries.

Andal said the university was coordinating ‌with authorities and would provide more details as information became available. “We do not want any of these things to happen. We wish to prioritise the safety of all our students,” he said.

In a statement posted online, the Philippine president, Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr, said: “We grieve with the families and the entire [school] community over a tragedy that should never have happened.

“I have directed our law enforcement agencies to conduct a thorough investigation into this incident and to determine what more must be done to prevent another family, another school and another community from suffering the same grief.”

Tuesday’s shooting comes after an attack at a public high school in Tacloban City ⁠in June that saw three students killed and about 20 injured after two students opened fire on campus.

In response, the government banned an online game, Gorebox, after it was discovered at least one of the alleged shooters regularly played it, and reopened a Senate inquiry on child safety in digital spaces.

But the department of education told a separate Senate committee last month that more support was needed to prevent a “copycat phenomenon”, as more incidents of violence followed the shooting, including bomb threats, stabbing and the recovery of firearms and ammunition, local media reported.

South-east Asia is grappling with violence among high school students, with a 14-year-old boy in Thailand allegedly shooting his grandparents and then killing more people at his school earlier this month before turning the gun on ⁠himself. Nine people died, including the shooter, teachers and a 12-year-old girl, and more than 30 were wounded.