A school in the southern Philippines was thrown into panic on Tuesday when a student opened fire inside a classroom, killing a Grade 10 student before apparently taking his own life, police said.
The shooting took place at Ateneo de Zamboanga University, a Catholic private school in Zamboanga City in western Mindanao. Police said the alleged attacker, a Grade 9 student, had brought both a pistol and a rifle onto the campus.
Police spokeswoman Shella Chang said investigators were still working to determine why the shooting happened. The crime scene was being processed, while authorities had yet to establish whether anyone else was injured.
A video shared by local media, apparently livestreamed on Facebook, showed what appeared to be a gun moving through a school hallway before being aimed into a classroom and fired. Students in school uniforms could be heard screaming as they rushed towards an exit.
Zamboanga City Mayor Khymer Olaso said the attacker first appeared to target a teacher sitting at a table but apparently missed before entering another room and shooting a student.
The university confirmed the deaths of two people and said it had contacted parents and guardians to arrange for students to leave the campus. It also said steps had been taken to ensure the safety of those who remained at the school.
The alleged shooter`s Facebook account was later disabled.
Tuesday`s incident is the Philippines` second school shooting in two months. In June, three teenagers were killed and 20 others wounded in a shooting at a school in the central Philippines.
Ateneo de Zamboanga had also taken part in active-shooter drills last month, along with schools in other parts of the country.
School shootings remain relatively uncommon in the Philippines, where legal gun ownership is strictly regulated. However, firearms are widely available through a sizeable illegal market.
-20260817061349.jpg)
