MANILA: Three students were killed in a school shooting in the southern Philippines on Friday (Sep 18), including a 16-year-old suspected gunman who turned the gun on himself, provincial officials said.
Eight others were injured, with four in critical condition, and all the victims were students aged 14 to 17, said Albert Palencia, mayor of Banga town in South Cotabato, where the shooting took place.
Local rescuers received a call about gunfire on the campus of Banga National High School in South Cotabato province in Mindanao at about 1.30pm.
“One male and one female were killed, both grade nine students,” disaster agency worker Rizalie Dedel told AFP over the phone.
The incident follows two fatal gun incidents since June at schools in the Philippines, where school shootings were previously rare.
“The suspect supposedly sat beside his friends and told them to go home ‘because after lunch, I will be executing my plan’. His friends laughed because the shooter was a known joker,” Palencia told Reuters.
“After lunch, he started shooting students. He hit 10 students before killing himself,” Palencia added.
He said that the suspect, the son of Department of Education officials, had taken the gun from a home safe.
South Cotabato provincial governor Reynaldo Tamayo told AFP the shooter had been a classmate of the victims.
“He is a student of that school, grade nine,” Tamayo said, adding that at least three people were being treated for gunshot wounds at a local hospital.
Tamayo said the shooter had used a “very well-maintained” nine-millimetre handgun and acted alone.
“For now, we are trying to let our fellow citizens know that the situation is stable and the case is contained,” he said.
“We never thought that this would happen.”
Police have yet to confirm the age of the shooter.
In a video posted to Facebook and confirmed by AFP, a man can be seen carrying what appears to be a wounded child from the school, rushing him into the sidecar of a waiting motorbike.
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