Three students killed in Philippine school shooting, including gunman, officials say
This is the Philippines’ third deadly campus shooting since June.
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)
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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.
Local rescuers received a call about gunfire on the campus of Banga National High School in South Cotabato province in Mindanao at about 1.30pm.
The incident follows two fatal gun incidents since June at schools in the Philippines, where school shootings were previously rare.
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“The suspect supposedly sat beside his friends and told them to go home ‘because after lunch, I will be executing my plan’. His friends laughed because the shooter was a known joker,” Palencia told Reuters.
“After lunch, he started shooting students. He hit 10 students before killing himself,” Palencia added.
“For now, we are trying to let our fellow citizens know that the situation is stable and the case is contained,” said South Cotabato provincial governor Reynaldo Tamayo.
“We never thought that this would happen.”
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.
In another, a teacher speaking in a local dialect can be heard saying that there were two shooters, with a student insisting they were outsiders.
Last month, a student live-streamed himself shooting and killing another student in a classroom in Zamboanga in the country’s south before taking his own life.
In June, at least three students were killed and about 20 others injured in an attack at a public high school in Tacloban, where two classmates opened fire on campus.
The Philippines has relatively strict gun ownership regulations, including background checks and psychological evaluation requirements, although illegal firearms remain in circulation.
The Friday shooting also follows a high-profile incident in Thailand in August, where a student went on a shooting rampage at a school on the outskirts of the capital Bangkok.
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.
South Cotabato governor Tamayo urged parents to ensure guns were kept out of reach of minors.
“We need to be responsible in storing firearms. Gun owners, in particular, must make sure that minors do not have access to them,” Tamayo told Reuters by phone.
“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.”
Source: Agencies/dy
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