A grade 10 student was shot dead at a high school in the southern Philippines on Tuesday before the alleged killer took his own life, police said.

The school shooting, the country's second in as many months, took place at Ateneo de Zamboanga University, a Catholic private institution in western Mindanao.

Regional police said a ninth-grade student had brought a "pistol and rifle inside the school campus" and opened fire in a classroom, killing one person before turning the gun on himself.

The university's president Ernald Andal confirmed there was no longer an active shooting and there were no additional fatalities or reported injuries.

"We do not want any of these things to happen. We wish to prioritise the safety of all our students," Andal said.

The shooting followed an attack in June at a public high school in Tacloban City in which at least three students were killed and about 20 others injured when two of their schoolmates opened fire on campus.

In a video circulated by local media that was seemingly live-streamed on Facebook, the barrel of a gun can be seen moving down a hallway in the style of a first-person shooter video game before being pointed into a classroom and fired.

Children in school uniforms are then seen screaming and rushing for an exit.

The alleged shooter's Facebook account has since been disabled.

"In the video, we see that he first shot at the teacher who was sitting at a table," Zamboanga City mayor Khymer Olaso, who initially identified the shooter as a seventh grader, told a local radio station.

"It seems he missed, then moved to another room... He shot another student there," he said.

The school separately confirmed the two fatalities.

"We have already coordinated with parents and guardians to pick up their children and the university has ensured the safety of those remaining on campus," it said in a statement.

School shootings are rare in the Philippines, but three teenaged students were killed and 20 others wounded in the central Philippines in June.

Ateneo de Zamboanga last month became one of many schools across the country to conduct active shooter drills.

Legal gun ownership is tightly regulated in the Southeast Asian country, but a large black market exists for firearms. (Agencies)



Edited by Tony Sabine