A 16-year-old gunman shot two pupils dead and wounded eight others at a high school in the southern Philippines on Friday afternoon before killing himself, the Daily Mirror reported citing the BBC.
Both of those killed were 14 years old. The attack took place at Banga National High School in the municipality of Banga, in the province of South Cotabato on the island of Mindanao. Local mayor Albert Palencia said four of the injured were in a critical condition.
Palencia told the Reuters news agency that during a lunchtime conversation the gunman had told friends to go home “because after lunch, [he would] be executing [his] plan.”
“His friends laughed because the shooter was a known joker,” the mayor said. “After lunch, he started shooting students. He hit 10 students before killing himself.”
The Philippines Red Cross said it was alerted at 2.00 p.m. local time and sent an ambulance with four paramedics. Disaster management authorities suspended classes at all levels across the entire municipality of Banga.
Why the casualty figures differ
Hiru News reported the same incident as one killed and four injured, citing Reuters and provincial governor Reynaldo Tamayo.
The two accounts are not in conflict. The Hiru figure comes from the governor’s first statement, which Reuters noted “provided no details on the shooter or casualties” — an early wire filing before the scale was known. The Daily Mirror’s later account, sourced to the mayor, carries the fuller picture. The “three dead” in that headline counts the gunman’s own death alongside the two pupils.
Readers should note that both filings are relays of international wire copy — BBC in one case, Reuters in the other, with the BBC report itself quoting Reuters. This is one developing account reaching Sri Lankan readers by two routes, not two independent verifications.
The third in four months
Between them the two reports set out a sequence neither gives alone:
- June — two classmates opened fire at a public high school in Tacloban in the central Philippines, killing at least three students and injuring about 20. Investigators believed the attack was motivated by a grudge over bullying.
- August — a student in Zamboanga live-streamed himself shooting and killing another student in a classroom before taking his own life.
- Friday — Banga.
School shootings were, until this year, rare in the Philippines. Hiru also places the sequence alongside a rampage by a student at a school outside Bangkok in August.
The two accounts characterise Philippine firearms policy differently: the Reuters copy describes “relatively strict” gun ownership rules including background checks and psychological evaluation, while noting illegal firearms remain in circulation; the BBC copy says the country has one of the highest rates of gun ownership in the region.
The education department said its “immediate priority is the safety and well-being of our learners, teachers and school personnel,” and urged the public to “remain calm and refrain from sharing unverified information as authorities continue their investigation.”
Not reported
Neither account names the gunman, says how he obtained the firearm, or gives a motive. Neither says whether the eight wounded include pupils beyond the 10 the mayor says were hit, nor gives the condition of the other four injured.
