TWO students were killed, including the gunman, after a shooting at a high school in the southern Philippine city of Zamboanga on Tuesday, with authorities saying the situation was under control.
The incident, at a school attached to the privately run Ateneo de Zamboanga University, was the second school shooting in the Philippines in less than two months.
Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr ordered law enforcement agencies to investigate the shooting and determine measures 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. They must also be among the safest places in our country,” Reuter cited Marcos saying in a statement.
According to a preliminary police report, the Grade 9 student brought a pistol and a rifle onto the school campus before opening fire on students inside a classroom.
The victim was identified as a male Grade 10 student, while the gunman died by suicide, police said.
Two other people were wounded in the shooting.
Video aired by GMA News, with images blurred, showed students ducking for cover inside a classroom as several gunshots rang out.
Footage broadcast by ANC showed students and parents gathered outside the school gates, where armed police and soldiers were deployed. Crime scene investigators were also seen arriving at the school.
The school is housed in a five-storey building on an eight-hectare site that accommodates grade school and junior high school students, according to the university’s website.
The latest shooting comes after an attack in June at a public high school in Tacloban City in the central Philippines, where at least three students were killed and about 20 others injured after two schoolmates opened fire on the campus.
School shootings are relatively rare in the Philippines, which has strict regulations governing gun ownership, including background checks and psychological evaluations.
However, illegal firearms remain in circulation in the country.
The incident also occurred less than 10 days after a high-profile shooting in Thailand, where a student went on a shooting rampage at a school on the outskirts of Bangkok.
Authorities have yet to establish a motive for Tuesday’s shooting. - August 18, 2026
