Philippines: Three dead and eight injured in shooting at Banga high school

A 16-year-old gunman has shot two students dead and injured eight others at a Philippine high school, before killing himself.

The two deceased victims were 14-year-old pupils at a school in Banga in the southern province of Mindanao, the local mayor told the BBC.

Albert Palencia said four of the injured were in critical condition.

The education department said in a statement it was "deeply concerned" by the reported incident which took place on Friday afternoon at Banga National High School.

This is the third deadly school shooting in the Philippines since June this year.

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

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

Palencia told Reuters news agency that during a lunchtime conversation on Friday, the gunman had urged friends to go home "because after lunch, [he would] be executing [his] plan".

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

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

Classes have been suspended "in all levels in the entire municipality of Banga" due to the shooting, disaster management authorities said in a statement.

The Philippines Red Cross said it was alerted to the incident at 14:00 local time (06:00 GMT) and had dispatched an ambulance with four paramedics to provide life-saving assistance.

Police are at the site investigating the shooting, local media reported.

Gun crime is not uncommon in the Philippines, which 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 later 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, who later died.

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

"We cannot expect a handful of security personnel to monitor thousands of students. We need to work together because otherwise this will be very difficult for us to address," he told Reuters.