A horrific act of school violence has shaken the southern Philippines after a teenage student killed a fellow classmate in a livestreamed attack earlier this week before turning the gun on himself, law enforcement and school officials confirmed Tuesday.\n\nThe tragedy unfolded at Ateneo de Zamboanga University, a private Catholic high school located in Zamboanga City on western Mindanao island, marking the second fatal school shooting in the country in just two months.\n\nRegional police spokesperson Shella Chang shared initial details of the incident with reporters, noting that the gunman first targeted his victim directly inside their classroom. After firing the fatal shots at the victim, the suspect moved to the building’s fifth floor and took his own life, Chang explained.\n\nPhilippine Interior Secretary Victor Remulla later confirmed that the ninth-grade suspect broadcast the entire attack live on social media via his personal Facebook account. Platform administrators have already taken the suspect’s account offline to prevent further spread of the graphic footage. Local media outlets that obtained portions of the livestream reported the footage was filmed in a first-person perspective, mimicking the style of popular first-person shooter video games. The video shows the gunman moving through a campus hallway before aiming into the occupied classroom and opening fire, prompting uniformed students to scream and flee the room in panic. As of Wednesday, authorities have not released a full count of any additional injuries from the chaotic scene.\n\nNational law enforcement teams have launched a full investigation into the attack, with three core priorities: uncovering the suspect’s motive, tracing the origin and legal ownership of the weapon used, and determining how the firearm was smuggled past campus security checkpoints. Police have not yet released the ages of either the suspect or the victim, pending notification of their next of kin.\n\nAteneo de Zamboanga president Father Guillrey Andal confirmed the two fatalities in an official briefing, saying the entire school community is reeling from the unexpected violence. “We are deeply saddened by this tragic incident,” Andal told reporters outside the campus Tuesday. “Our team is working closely with police to formally identify both individuals so we can first notify and support their families.”\n\nAndal added that the attack had left the entire campus community shaken, saying “this incident has caused deep concern and worry across our school.” In a striking note, he shared that campus security teams had been actively preparing for an active shooter simulation exercise before the attack, as part of a national push to improve school safety.\n\nThe June mass shooting in the central Philippines, which left three teen students dead and 20 more wounded, prompted dozens of schools across the country, including Ateneo de Zamboanga, to roll out active shooter preparedness drills just last month. While school shootings remain extremely rare in the Philippines, the back-to-back attacks have raised new alarms over campus safety and illegal firearms access.\n\nAlthough the Philippine government enforces strict regulations on legal gun ownership, officials have long struggled to crack down on a thriving illegal black market for unregistered firearms across the archipelago.