Philippine student shot dead in livestreamed school attack

n n

A student livestreamed himself shooting another schoolmate dead before taking his own life at a high school in the Philippines on Tuesday, authorities said.

n

The school shooting, the country’s second in as many months, took place at Ateneo de Zamboanga University, a Catholic private institution in western Mindanao.

n

“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.

n

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.

n

In the video, which was circulated by local media, 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.

n

Children in school uniforms are then seen screaming and rushing for an exit.

n

It was not immediately clear how many were injured.

n

National police were now trying 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”, the interior ministry said in a statement.

n

Police have yet to release the ages of the shooter or victim.

n

Ateneo de Zamboanga president Father Guillrey Andal, confirming the two fatalities, said the school was “deeply saddened” by the shooting and was cooperating with the investigation.

n

“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,” he told reporters outside the school, acknowledging the incident had caused “deep concern and worry”.

n

“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.”

n

School shootings are rare in the Philippines, but three teenage students were killed and 20 others wounded in an attack at a school in the central Philippines in June.

n

Ateneo de Zamboanga last month became one of many schools across the country to conduct active shooter drills in the wake of that tragedy.

n

Legal gun ownership is tightly regulated in the Southeast Asian country, but a large black market exists for firearms.

n

AFP

n n