At least two students were killed in a shooting at a high school in the southern Philippines on Friday before the student gunman took his own life, officials said.
The attack occurred at Banga National High School in South Cotabato province on the island of Mindanao. Local rescuers received a call about gunfire on the campus at about 1:30 p.m. (0530 GMT).
“One male and one female were killed, both Grade nine students,” disaster agency worker Rizalie Dedel said, adding that the gunman had taken his own life.
South Cotabato provincial governor Reynaldo Tamayo said the shooter was a Grade nine student at the school and had been a classmate of the victims.
“He is a student of that school, grade nine,” Tamayo said.
Tamayo added that at least three other people were receiving treatment for gunshot wounds at a local hospital.
He said the shooter acted alone and used a “very well-maintained” nine-millimetre handgun.
Banga Mayor Albert Palencia said in a separate radio interview that the suspect was the son of Department of Education officials and had taken the firearm from a home safe.
Palencia said the student had warned two friends that he planned to carry out the attack “right after lunch”.
Police had yet to confirm the shooter’s age.
A video posted on Facebook and confirmed by AFP showed a man carrying what appeared to be a wounded child from the school and rushing him into the sidecar of a waiting motorbike.
The shooting occurred exactly one month after a student livestreamed himself shooting a schoolmate dead before taking his own life at another school in Mindanao.
The Philippines had conducted nationwide live shooter drills this month as authorities sought to strengthen school security following two rare school shootings that had shaken the country in recent months.
Palencia said the parents of the Banga shooter had participated in the drills conducted in the area.
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