Teen Gunmen Kill Three Students in Rare Philippine School Shooting
Manila- Three teenage students were killed and five others wounded after two minors allegedly opened fire inside a secondary school in the central Philippines on Monday, in a rare incident of school gun violence that has shocked the country and prompted a nationwide security response.
The shooting occurred at around 9:00 a.m. local time at San Jose National High School in Tacloban City, in Leyte province, police said. Two suspects, aged 15 and 14, were taken into custody shortly after the attack and are being questioned in the presence of their parents.
Police said the two boys fired indiscriminately inside the school compound, killing three students and injuring five others. Authorities have not yet established a definitive motive for the attack.
“We are hearing bullying was the motive behind their actions, but we have yet to ask them,” police Lieutenant Evalyn Diaz told AFP, adding that investigators were still working to reconstruct the sequence of events.
Authorities are also investigating how the suspects obtained the firearms and managed to bring them onto school grounds.
The injured students were transported to nearby hospitals for treatment, although officials have not released details regarding their conditions.
Video footage circulated by local media and verified by AFP showed students hiding inside classrooms while gunshots rang out across the campus, with children heard screaming and crying during the incident.
The Philippine Department of Education described the attack as a “high-alert situation” and said officials from the national, regional and local education offices had been deployed to coordinate with law enforcement agencies and school administrators.
“Our Central Office officials, alongside regional and division office personnel, are active on the ground, coordinating closely with school authorities and law enforcement to secure the premises,” the department said in a statement.
School shootings are uncommon in the Philippines, where firearms ownership is tightly regulated. However, illegal weapons remain widely available through black-market networks, and gun-related violence is frequently linked to criminal activity, personal disputes and local political rivalries.
In 2022, three people, including a former city mayor, were killed in a shooting near a graduation ceremony at Ateneo de Manila University in the capital. Authorities later concluded that attack was motivated by personal grievances.
Monday’s shooting is likely to renew scrutiny of school security measures and access to illegal firearms in the Southeast Asian nation as investigators continue to examine the circumstances surrounding the attack.
