A 16-year-old student has shot and killed two classmates at a high school in the southern Philippines before turning the gun on himself, in the country's third deadly school shooting in just four months. The attack took place on Friday afternoon at Banga National High School in the town of Banga, South Cotabato province, on the island of Mindanao. Eight others were injured, four of them in critical condition; all victims were students aged between 14 and 17.

According to Banga's mayor, Albert Palencia, the gunman had warned friends during a lunchtime conversation that they should go home "because after lunch, he would be executing his plan." His friends dismissed the remark, as he was known as a joker. He then opened fire on students in a neighbouring classroom, hitting ten before taking his own life. The weapon used — believed to be a 9mm handgun — reportedly belonged to the shooter's father, a Department of Education employee, and had been stored in a locked vault. Palencia also told local media that police discovered posts the teenager had made in an online community where young people involved in school shootings are "idolized," and that his mother had reportedly wanted to take him to a psychiatrist.

The Philippine education department said it was "deeply concerned" by the incident, adding that its "immediate priority is the safety and well-being of learners, teachers and school personnel." Classes were suspended across all schools in the municipality of Banga following the attack. The Philippines Red Cross dispatched an ambulance and paramedics to the scene, and police are investigating.

This shooting is the third deadly campus incident in the Philippines since June. In that month, three students were killed and around twenty others injured at a public high school in Tacloban, in what investigators said was motivated by a grudge over bullying. In August, a student in Zamboanga, also in the south of the country, shot and killed a fellow student in a classroom — reportedly livestreaming the incident — before dying by suicide.

The pattern is prompting urgent calls for action. South Cotabato Governor Reynaldo Tamayo urged adult gun owners to store firearms responsibly and prevent minors from gaining access to them. While the Philippines has relatively strict gun ownership rules — including background checks and mandatory psychological evaluations — illegal firearms remain in wide circulation, and the country has one of the highest rates of gun ownership in Southeast Asia. "We cannot expect a handful of security personnel to monitor thousands of students," Tamayo said. "We need to work together, because otherwise this will be very difficult for us to address."