Philippines school shooting livestreamed by student leaves two dead in Zamboanga

Manila,UPDATED: Aug 18, 2026 11:52 IST

A high school student carrying two pistols shot dead a fellow student before killing himself at a school in the southern Philippines on Tuesday, in an attack that he livestreamed using a body-worn camera, police and other officials said. It was the second fatal school shooting in the country in just two months.

Hundreds of students were evacuated after gunfire rang out in the high school building of the Ateneo de Zamboanga university campus in Zamboanga. Two other people were injured, and police said a few hours later that the situation was under control.

Police identified the suspect as Grade 9 student Mohammad Mael Jalani. In an initial report, police said he fired at a teacher sitting in front of a class but apparently missed, then shot a student on the fourth floor before going up one floor and killing himself. Interior Secretary Jonvic Remulla told reporters, "He entered and started indiscriminately firing, hitting a Grade 10 student at the fourth floor then subsequently went to the fifth floor and jumped from the said building and committed suicide." Zamboanga city Mayor Khymer Adan Olaso and the police said the suspect shot himself.

Remulla said the attack was partly shown online. "He showed this on Facebook Live starting when he was climbing up the stairs but there were only snippets," he said. "We'll look into his gaming history and his chat history so we cannot come up with a complete answer why this happened until we do a complete forensic analysis." The high school building is in a secured campus, separate from the larger campus of the privately owned Catholic university, where its colleges and professional schools are located.

Police asked parents and guardians to remain calm and follow the high school's arrangements for picking up their children. police chief Gen. Jose Melencio Nartatez Jr. said, "Authorities are currently establishing the circumstances surrounding the incident." He added that the police "will provide verified information as appropriate and appeals to the public to refrain from sharing unconfirmed reports, photos, or videos that may cause unnecessary concern." Nartatez also said the police "assure the public that the safety and well-being of the school community remain a priority" and thanked the school administration, parents, guardians and the community for their cooperation.

The shooting happened despite police assurances that security in schools across the country would be strengthened after a shooting in June in central Tacloban city, where three high school students were killed and at least 20 others were injured. Police arrested two students, aged 14 and 15, and accused them of carrying out that attack. Crimes involving firearms are prevalent in the Philippines, partly because of the spread of unlicensed weapons, though school shootings are relatively rare.

Days after the Tacloban shooting, Philippine authorities said they had temporarily blocked the online gaming app Gorebox to assess whether it played a role in fostering such violence. The Cybercrime Investigation and Coordinating Centre said its decision to indefinitely block the app was prompted by an ongoing police investigation which showed that one suspect was an avid user. The shooting in the Philippines also came less than two weeks after a school shooting in Thailand. Thailand's Prime Minister Anutin Charnvirakul took steps to restrict guns after a 14-year-old boy killed his grandparents, five school staff members and a 12-year-old girl in Nonthaburi province outside Bangkok. Thailand's rate of gun ownership is second only to Pakistan in Asia and far higher than that of its Southeast Asian neighbours.

Tuesday's attack in Zamboanga left one student and the gunman dead, injured two others and forced the evacuation of hundreds, while authorities began examining the livestream footage and the suspect's gaming and chat history as part of the investigation.

With PTI Inputs

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