MANILA, Philippines (AP) — Philippine authorities said Tuesday they will temporarily block an online gaming app that one of two students blamed for a deadly school shooting has avidly used, to assess whether it played a role in fostering such violence.
Three students were killed and 20 others were wounded when the two suspects, aged 14 and 15 and armed with a handgun each, opened fire Monday at the San Jose National High School in central Tacloban city.
The Cybercrime Investigation and Coordinating Center said its decision to block Gorebox was prompted by an ongoing police investigation which showed that one suspect was an avid user of the app, adding that this will allow authorities to determine “whether the platform played any role in the actions of the suspects.”
The decision would be enforced starting Tuesday, undersecretary Aboy Paraiso of the cybercrime center said in a statement.
“We cannot ignore possible online influences that may have contributed to this tragic incident,” Paraiso said, without specifying how long the app will be blocked.
The gaming app was launched in 2023 and has been marketed as “a physics-driven sandbox game where creativity meets unrestrained destruction,” the center said.
Paraiso did not say what action might be taken if a government assessment concludes that the app promotes violence among users.
“Beyond this temporary ban, we are reinforcing our monitoring efforts to identify online spaces that may pose risks to young users and to ensure that appropriate interventions are made immediately,” Paraiso said. “Our priority is the safety and well-being of Filipino children exposed to the internet."
Crimes involving the use of firearms are prevalent in the Philippines, partly due to the proliferation of unlicensed firearms, but school shootings are relatively rare.
Regional police chief Brig. Gen. Jason Capoy said the suspects have told investigators they staged the attack to retaliate for being bullied in school. He and other police officials, however, said a thorough investigation ordered by President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. will look at all possibilities based on witnesses and evidence, including the possible influence of online groups promoting rebellion and violent behavior among youth.
One suspect got the 9 mm pistol from an aunt, a police officer, who was being investigated. The other suspect had a .38 caliber revolver obtained from an employee of a security agency. They managed to bring the guns onto the campus because it had inadequate security for the school’s 1,600 students, police said.
In one video of the attack posted online, students hiding under desks in a shut classroom can be heard screaming and weeping as gunshots are heard outside. Some called their mothers.
The dead and wounded were all students, police said, adding that investigators recovered at least 40 shell casings at the scene.
The suspects were to be turned over to government welfare officers after the investigation because of their age.
The 14-year-old would be exempt from criminal prosecution under a 2006 Philippine law that sets the minimum age of 15 for a minor to be criminally liable and only if authorities determine that a suspect was clearly aware of the crime that was committed and its repercussions.
A police vehicle enters San Jose National High School a day after a shooting incident inside the school in Tacloban city, central Philippines, on Monday June 22, 2026. (AP Photo/Panfilo Vallejera)
BARCELONA, Spain (AP) — A high-speed train slammed into the rear of another train that had stopped, derailing two cars and killing at least 30 people on Wednesday in central Spain, according to local media.
Spanish authorities initially reported 10 deaths, but Esther Padilla, spokeswoman for the Castilla La Mancha region, added “that number will surely rise.”
Spanish state-owned news agency EFE and other media reported later that the death toll had risen to at least 30.
It was the second major train accident in Spain this year.
Spain’s rail system operator ADIF said the crash occurred Wednesday morning in the province of Toledo. Rail service was suspended between Madrid, Ciudad Real and Andalusia.
Padilla told state broadcaster TVE that the accident was between two high-speed trains carrying hundreds of passengers and heading in the same direction from the capital Madrid to Seville in southwestern Spain. One ran into the tail of the other that had stopped, knocking two of its cars off the track. She said the cause of the crash was not known.
The crash, which occurred in a flat stretch surrounded by fields in between the towns of Urda and Los Yébenes, left one car shredded into bits of metal and other material, scattering debris down a gravel slope.
Spanish Health Minister Mónica García told TVE that emergency workers were focusing on rescuing survivors and bodies from the two most damaged train cars. She said that the injured are being sent to different hospitals in the area.
“It was a high-speed impact, so we are expecting this to be a tragedy,” García said.
The accident involved a train from Spain’s state-owned RENFE company and the private rail company IRYO. It appeared the RENFE train rammed the IRYO train, Spanish media reported. Trains from those two companies were also involved in a deadly crash in January.
Padilla said that 397 passengers were in the RENFE train and 147 passengers in the IRYO train.
IRYO, an Italian-owned company, said in a statement that it has “activated its security protocols and is closely working with authorities.”
The mayor of the nearby town of Urda, Manuel Galán, told Spanish state broadcaster TVE that civil protection authorities had asked his town hall to prepare a sports pavilion to attend to injured passengers.
A military emergency brigade was deployed to help emergency services, firefighters and police to the crash site.
Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez cancelled his agenda to focus on the crash. He wrote on X that he was “dismayed by the serious train accident in Toledo.”
“Emergency services are working on site to attend to the affected passengers,” wrote Sánchez, who faces a national election next month. “All my thoughts are with the victims and their families.”
The regional president of Castilla La Mancha, Emiliano García-Page, wrote on X that he was on his way to the crash site.
In January, 45 people died in southern Spain when a train jumped the track and hit an oncoming train. The crash was the deadliest in Spain since a 2013 crash that killed 80 people. The January incident shook the confidence the European country has in its extensive high-speed rail network.
Emergency services attend to the victims at the scene of a collision between two trains in Urda, Spain, on Wednesday, Oct. 28, 2026. (Juanma Jiménez/Europa Press via AP)
The scene of a collision between two trains in Urda, Spain on Wednesday, Oct. 28, 2026. (Juanma Jimenez/Europa Press via AP)
The scene of a collision between two trains in Urda, Spain on Wednesday, Oct. 28, 2026. (Juanma Jimenez/Europa Press via AP)
