A high school student opened fire at a private university campus in the southern port city of Zamboanga in the Philippines on Tuesday, killing a fellow student and wounding two others before taking his own life, police said.

The shooting occurred at about 7:50 a.m. local time at Ateneo de Zamboanga University, roughly 800 kilometers south of the capital, Manila. Regional police said a ninth-grade student (typically aged 14-16) brought a pistol and a rifle onto the school grounds and opened fire in a classroom.

The attack was reportedly livestreamed via a body camera. In a video circulated by local media, the barrel of a gun is seen moving down a hallway in a first-person shooter style before pointing into a classroom and firing. Zamboanga City Mayor Khymer Olaso told a local radio station: "In the video, we see that he first shot at the teacher who was sitting at a desk. It seems he missed, then moved to another room [and] shot another student there."

Hundreds of students were evacuated to safety after gunshots were heard in the high school building, which is on a secured campus separate from the larger university. Classes were suspended, and the alleged shooter's Facebook account was disabled.

Police are investigating how the student managed to bring firearms onto campus. "One of the focuses our investigation will look into is how the suspect brought the firearms into the school," a police spokeswoman said. "The investigation is ongoing... We are still trying to identify the motive."

School shootings are rare in the Philippines, where gun ownership is tightly regulated. However, a large black market for firearms exists, and in June, three students were killed and 20 injured in a shooting in the eastern city of Tacloban. In response, Ateneo de Zamboanga had conducted active shooter drills last month, as have many other educational institutions across the country.

Source: www.dw.com