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School Shooting in Philippines Kills Three Including Gunman
Confirmed
In Short: A shooting at Banga National High School in the southern Philippines left three dead and six injured, including the gunman.
Reynaldo Tamayo, South Cotabato provincial governor, said the suspected gunman, a 16-year-old student, shot himself after the attack. Eight others were injured, with four in critical condition.
Albert Palencia, mayor of Banga town, reported that the gunman had told his friends to go home after lunch because he was planning to do something.
The shooting occurred around 1:30 pm, and the gunman hit 10 students in the classroom next to his, killing two and wounding eight.
Emergency personnel responded to the scene, and the Philippine National Police confirmed the incident, stating that the circumstances were under investigation.
The Department of Education expressed deep concern over the shooting, which follows two other fatal school shootings in the Philippines since June, highlighting the need for strengthened security measures.
Background
The Philippines, officially the Republic of the Philippines, is an archipelagic country in Southeast Asia. Located in the western Pacific Ocean, it consists of about 7,641 islands, with a total area of about 300,000 square kilometers.
A school shooting is an armed attack at an educational institution, involving the use of a gun. Many school shootings are also categorized as mass shootings due to multiple casualties.
What's confirmed
- MANILA, Philippines -- A shooting at a high school in the southern Philippines on Friday left at least three young people dead and six others injured, including the gunman, a local official said.
- Rolly Doane Aquino, a provincial disaster response official in South Cotabato province, said three people were killed and six others were hospitalized after the shooting at Banga National High School in the town of Banga.
- “After lunch, he started shooting students. He hit 10 students before killing himself,” Palencia added.
- At least eight people were also injured in the country’s third deadly school shooting since June.
- At least three people, including a 16-year-old suspected gunman, have been killed and several injured in a shooting at a school in the Philippines.
- Emergency personnel walk at a site of a deadly shooting at a school in Banga, South Cotabato, Philippines, on Sep 18, 2026. (Photo: Philippine Red Cross via Reuters) MANILA: Three students were killed in a school shooting in the southern Philippines on Friday (Sep 18), including a 16-year-old suspected gunman who turned the gun on himself, provincial officials said.
- Eight others were injured, with four in critical condition, and all the victims were students aged 14 to 17, said Albert Palencia, mayor of Banga town in South Cotabato, where the shooting took place.
- "He is a student of that school, grade nine," Tamayo said, adding that at least three people were being treated for gunshot wounds at a local hospital.
What's still developing
- The Philippine National Police confirmed in a statement that three people had died and several others had been wounded.
- Reynaldo Tamayo said the gunman’s best friend told officials that he was a member of a “true crime community.” Tamayo said authorities would investigate the claim.
- The attack is the third school shooting to take place in the country in recent months.
- A student killed at least two people at a school in the southern Philippines on Friday before turning the gun on himself, officials told AFP, the country’s third deadly campus attack since June.
- “One male and one female were killed, both Grade nine students,” disaster agency worker Rizalie Dedel told AFP over the phone, adding that the gunman had taken his own life.
- Nationwide live shooter drills were conducted this month to strengthen security following two rare school shootings that shook the Philippines in the past few months.
- In a video posted to Facebook and confirmed by AFP, a man can be seen carrying what appears to be a wounded child from the school, rushing him into the sidecar of a waiting motorbike.
- Police officers secured the campus and coordinated with school officials and medical responders, the statement said.