Philippines Hit by Second School Shooting in Two Months, Leaving Two Dead

ZAMBOANGA City — Two students were killed in a shooting at a secondary school in the southern Philippines on Tuesday, one of them the gunman, with officials confirming that the situation is now under control. It is the second such incident in the country in fewer than two months.

Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr has directed law enforcement agencies to investigate the attack and to identify measures that must be taken to prevent further violence in schools.

"Our schools are where we entrust our children to learn, to grow and to dream about the lives ahead of them. They must also be among the safest places in our country," Mr Marcos said in a statement.

Reuters reports that the shooting occurred at a school affiliated with the privately run Ateneo de Zamboanga University in the city of Zamboanga. According to a preliminary police report, the gunman brought a pistol and a rifle onto the school grounds before opening fire on students inside a classroom.

Footage broadcast by GMA News, with images blurred, depicted chaotic scenes as students took cover whilst several shots rang out. Police confirmed that the victim was a male grade10 student, and that the gunman — a grade 9 student — subsequently took his own life. Two further students sustained injuries.

The attack follows an incident in June at a public secondary school in Tacloban City, in the central Philippines, in which at least three students were killed and approximately 20 others injured after two of their classmates opened fire on the school grounds.

School shootings remain rare in the Philippines, which maintains relatively stringent firearms regulations — including mandatory background checks and psychological evaluations — though illegal weapons continue to circulate.

News channel ANC broadcast footage of students and parents gathered outside the school gates, with armed police officers and soldiers in attendance. Crime scene investigators were also observed arriving at the premises. According to its website, the school occupies a five-storey building set within an 8-hectare (19.8-acre) site, accommodating the university's primary and lower secondary school students.

The incident follows by fewer than ten days a high-profile attack in Thailand, in which a student went on a shooting rampage at a school on the outskirts of the capital, Bangkok.