Three dead, eight injured in Philippines school shooting

MANILA — At least three people, including a 16-year-old suspected gunman, have been killed and several injured in a deadly shooting at a school in the Philippines.The shooting took place on Friday afternoon at Banga National High School in Banga town in ‌South Cotabato, in the southern Philippines, ⁠provincial Governor Reynaldo Tamayo ​said. It is the country’s third deadly school shooting incident since June.Two of the victims were 14-year-old students, Banga mayor Albert Palencia told the BBC. The gunman, 16, is among the dead, he said, while four of those injured are in critical condition.He said several others were being treated in hospital, and all of the victims were ⁠students aged ⁠14 to ⁠17.The Department of Education said in a statement that it was “deeply concerned by the reported shooting incident”.This is the third deadly school shooting in the Philippines since June this year.”Our immediate priority is the safety and well-being of our learners, teachers and school personnel,” the education ministry said, adding it was coordinating with authorities to verify the incident and provide necessary support.”We urge everyone to remain calm and refrain from sharing unverified information as authorities continue their investigation.”Palencia told the Reuters news agency that during a lunchtime conversation on Friday, the gunman had urged friends to go home “because after lunch, [he would] be executing [his] plan”.”His friends laughed because the shooter was a known joker,” Palencia told the news agency.”After lunch, he started shooting students. He hit 10 students before killing himself.”Classes have been suspended “in all levels in the entire municipality of Banga” due to the shooting, the Banga disaster management authorities said in a statement.The Philippines Red Cross said it was alerted to the incident at 14:00 local time and had dispatched an ambulance with four paramedics to provide life-saving assistance.Police are at the site investigating the shooting, local media reported.Gun crime is not uncommon in the Philippines, which has one of the highest rates of gun ownership in the region. Broadly speaking, school shootings are rare, but today’s incident marks the third deadly campus shooting in the last four months.In June, three students were killed and more were injured after their peers opened fire at a high school in central Philippines. Investigators believed the deadly shooting had been motivated by a “grudge” over bullying.In August, a student at a Catholic junior high school in the southern Philippines shot dead a fellow student and later took his own life. In this case, the suspect had fired at the teacher, but missed, then moved to another classroom and shot a student, who later died.Following the shooting on Friday, Reynaldo Tamayo, the South Cotabato governor, urged adult gun owners to “be responsible in storing firearms” and ensuring that minors do not get access to them.”We cannot expect a handful of security personnel to monitor thousands of students. We need to work together because otherwise this will be very difficult for us to address,” he told Reuters.