A student livestreamed the fatal shooting of a schoolmate before taking his own life at a high school in the Philippines on Tuesday, authorities said.
The shooting happened at Ateneo de Zamboanga University, a Catholic private school in western Mindanao. It was the country’s second school shooting in two months.
Regional police spokeswoman Shella Chang said the suspect entered the classroom of the victim, shot the student and then went to the fifth floor, where he fatally shot himself.
“What we know so far is that (the shooter) went to the classroom of our known victim. He shot the victim, and after doing that, he went up to the fifth floor and shot himself,” Chang said.
Interior Secretary Victor Remulla separately confirmed that the ninth-grade suspect had livestreamed the incident on social media. The alleged shooter’s Facebook account has since been disabled.
Video footage circulated by local media showed a gun being carried through a school hallway before being pointed into a classroom and fired. Students in school uniforms could then be seen fleeing the area.
Authorities had not immediately established how many people were injured.
Police Investigate Motive
The national police are investigating the circumstances surrounding the shooting, including the motive and how the firearm entered the school.
The interior ministry said investigators were working to “establish the motive behind the shooting, determine the ownership and source of the firearm used, and find out how it was brought inside the school campus”.
Police had not released the ages of the shooter or victim.
Ateneo de Zamboanga president Father Guillrey Andal confirmed the two deaths and said the school was cooperating with authorities.
“We are in the process of working with the police for us to be able to identify them, so that we can communicate first with their loved ones,” Andal told reporters outside the school.
He said the incident had caused “deep concern and worry” within the school community.
Andal also said the school had already been preparing an active shooter simulation exercise before Tuesday’s attack.
“Prior to this, our security team had even been preparing a simulation exercise, precisely because we understand the value to everyone — our students, our personnel — of safety,” he said.
Second School Shooting In Two Months
School shootings remain uncommon in the Philippines, where gun ownership is tightly regulated, although firearms are also available through a substantial black market.
In June, three teenage students were killed and 20 others wounded in a shooting at a school in the central Philippines.
Following that attack, Ateneo de Zamboanga and other schools across the country conducted active shooter drills.
Tuesday’s shooting has renewed concerns over school security and the accessibility of firearms as authorities investigate how the weapon was brought onto the campus.
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