Vehicles exit the Ateneo de Zamboanga University following a shooting incident in Zamboanga. (AP photo)
A student was shot dead at a junior high school in the southern Philippines on Aug. 18 before the alleged killer took his own life, the local mayor said.
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.
“A [seventh-grader] managed to enter carrying a high-powered firearm and a .45 caliber pistol,” Zamboanga City mayor Khymer Olaso told a local radio station.
“In the video, we see that he first shot at the teacher who was sitting at a table,” Olaso said, referencing a screen-grabbed video being circulated by local media.
“It seems he missed, then moved to another room... he shot another student there, the one who fell. It seems two others were also injured, probably before he killed himself.”
The school separately confirmed there had been two fatalities.
“The safety of our students is our top priority,” it said in a statement.
“We have already coordinated with parents and guardians to pick up their children and the university has ensured the safety of those remaining on campus.”
School shootings are rare in the Philippines, and Ateneo de Zamboanga had conducted an active shooter drill only last month.
In June, three teenaged students were killed and 20 others wounded in another shooting in the central Philippines.
Legal gun ownership is tightly regulated in the Southeast Asian country, but a large black market exists for firearms.
