Two students were killed and eight others injured in a shooting at Banga National High School in the southern Philippine province of Mindanao, according to the local mayor and the Philippine education department.
The alleged gunman, a 16-year-old student, was among those who died after reportedly taking his own life, the BBC reported. The two victims were 14-year-old pupils, while four of the injured were in critical condition, Mayor Albert Palencia said.
The shooting took place on Friday afternoon in Banga. Palencia told Reuters that the teenager had told friends during lunch that they should go home because he planned to carry out a shooting. The friends reportedly did not take the warning seriously because they knew him as someone who often joked.
The Philippine Red Cross said it was alerted at 14:00 local time, or 06:00 GMT, and sent an ambulance and four paramedics to the school. Police were investigating at the scene, while local disaster management authorities said classes at all levels had been suspended throughout Banga.
The education department said it was “deeply concerned” and was coordinating with authorities to verify the incident and provide support. It urged the public to remain calm and avoid spreading unverified information, saying its immediate priority was the safety and welfare of students, teachers and school staff.
South Cotabato Governor Reynaldo Tamayo called on adult gun owners to store firearms responsibly and prevent minors from accessing them. He told Reuters that schools could not rely solely on a small number of security personnel to monitor thousands of students.
The BBC reported that the shooting was the third deadly attack at a Philippine school since June. In June, three students were killed in a central Philippine high school shooting that investigators believed was linked to a bullying-related grudge. In August, a student at a Catholic junior high school in the south killed a fellow student and later took his own life.