Three dead, eight injured in Philippines school shooting

ByKoh Ewe and Kelly Ng, BBC News. 18 September 2026, 09: 28 BST.

Key points

• Two of the victims were 14-year-old students, Banga mayor Albert Palencia informed the BBC.
• Three individuals have been killed and eight injured in a shooting at a high school in Banga in the province of Mindanao, southern Philippines.
• The Department of Education remarked in an official note that it was "deeply concerned by the reported shooting incident".
• This is the third deadly school shooting in the Philippines since June this year.
• Classes have been suspended "in all levels in the entire municipality of Banga" due to the shooting, the Banga disaster management authorities remarked in an official note.

Two of the victims were 14-year-old students, Banga mayor Albert Palencia informed the BBC. While four of those injured are in a critical condition, the gunman, 16, is among the dead, he remarked. The incident happened on Friday afternoon at Banga National High School.

Notably, the Department of Education remarked in an official note that it was "deeply concerned by the reported shooting incident".

"Our immediate priority is the safety and well-being of our learners, teachers and school personnel, " the education ministry remarked, adding it was coordinating with authorities to verify the incident and provide necessary backing.

"We urge everyone to remain calm and refrain from sharing unverified information as authorities continue their investigation."

Palencia informed the Reuters news agency that during a lunchtime conversation on Friday, the gunman had called on friends to go home "because after lunch, be executing plan".

"His friends laughed because the shooter was a known joker, " Palencia informed the news agency.

"After lunch, he began shooting students. He hit 10 students before killing himself."

For context, the Philippines Red Cross remarked it was alerted to the incident at 14: 00 local time and had dispatched an ambulance with four paramedics to provide life-saving assistance. Police are at the site investigating the shooting, local media documented.

Gun crime is not uncommon in the Philippines. It has one of the highest rates of gun ownership in the region. Broadly speaking, school shootings are rare, but today's incident marks the third deadly campus shooting in the last four months.

In June, three students were killed and more were injured after their peers opened fire at a high school in central Philippines. Investigators believed the deadly shooting had been motivated by a "grudge" over bullying.

In August, a student at a Catholic junior high school in the southern Philippines shot dead a fellow student and afterwards took his own life. In this case, the suspect had fired at the teacher, but missed, then moved to another classroom and shot a student. This person afterwards died.

After the shooting on Friday, Reynaldo Tamayo, the South Cotabato governor, called on adult gun owners to "be responsible in storing firearms" and ensuring that minors do not obtain access to them.

"We cannot expect a handful of security personnel to monitor thousands of students. We need to work together since otherwise this will be highly tough for us to address, " he informed Reuters.

In short, three dead, eight injured in Philippines school shooting is the central thread here, and readers can expect follow-up reporting as the picture becomes clearer.