2 Dead in School Shooting in Southern Philippines
Two people were killed in a shooting at a Catholic junior high school in the southern Philippines on Tuesday (Aug 18) and the situation was under control, officials said, in the second such incident in the country in nearly two months.
Two people were killed in a tragic school shooting southern philippines at Ateneo de Zamboanga. A Grade 9 student opened fire during a philippines high school shooting livestream before taking his own life, sparking widespread calls to address gun violence in philippine schools.
Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr ordered law enforcement agencies to investigate and to determine measures to be taken to prevent violence in schools.
"Our schools are where we entrust our children to learn, to grow and to dream about the lives ahead of them. Read More : Three Killed and Five Injured in Philippine School Shooting They must also be among the safest places in our country," Marcos said in a statement. "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," regional police spokeswoman Shella Chang told AFP.
In a separate statement, interior secretary Victor Remulla confirmed the ninth-grade suspect had livestreamed the incident on social media. The alleged shooter's Facebook account has since been disabled.
Video aired by GMA News, with images blurred, showed chaotic scenes inside a classroom with students ducking for cover as several gunshots rang out.
The victim was a male Grade 10 student, police said. The gunman, a Grade 9 student, killed himself, police said.
Two others were wounded.
The city's mayor Khymer Adan Olaso told DZMM radio that the shooter used a "high-powered firearm".
"In the video, we see that he first shot at the teacher who was sitting at a table," Olaso said, referencing a screen-grabbed video being circulated by local media.
"It seems he missed, then moved to another room ... he shot another student there, the one who fell.
"It seems two others were also injured, probably before he killed himself."
The university's president Ernald Andal confirmed there was no longer an active shooting and there were no more fatalities or reported injuries.
"As of now, we confirm that there are two fatalities," Andal said. "There are no more active shooters."
The school separately confirmed there had been two fatalities.
"The safety of our students is our top priority," it said in a statement.
"We have already coordinated with parents and guardians to pick up their children and the university has ensured the safety of those remaining on campus."
Regional police spokesperson Major Shellamie Chang said police forces were trying to secure the school campus, but she could not immediately provide other details.
In a video circulated by local media that was seemingly live-streamed on Facebook, the barrel of a gun can be seen moving down a hallway in the style of a first-person shooter video game before being pointed into a classroom and fired.
Children in school uniforms are then seen screaming and rushing for an exit.
News channel ANC showed footage of students and parents gathering outside the school gates with some armed police and soldiers present. Crime scene investigators are seen arriving at the school.
The school is a five-storey building on an 8ha site that houses the university's grade school and junior high school students, its website stated.
The alleged shooter's Facebook account has since been disabled.
School shootings are rare in the Philippines, and Ateneo de Zamboanga had conducted an active shooter drill only last month.
In June, there was an attack at a public high school in Tacloban City where at least three students were killed and about 20 others injured after two of their schoolmates opened fire on campus.
Legal gun ownership is tightly regulated in the Southeast Asian country, but a large black market exists for firearms.
This latest shooting came less than 10 days after a high-profile incident in Thailand, where a student went on a shooting rampage at a school on the outskirts of the capital Bangkok.
Source: www.channelnewsasia.com
