Stabbing attacks keep Koreans on edge: ‘I’m more scared of being in South Korea’
- Back-to-back stabbing rampages, including at a shopping centre in Seongnam, have heightened fears of copycat attacks in a country that has long been considered safe
- ‘I’ve always been telling my kids to be careful when they go abroad due to gun fears but now I’m more scared of being in South Korea,’ a resident says
A man rammed his car into passers-by then got out and stabbed multiple people in a shopping centre in Seongnam on Thursday, police said. He was arrested on site, leaving 14 people wounded, two in critical condition.
On Friday, police detained a man suspected of stabbing a teacher with a knife in the city of Daejeon.
Officials at the Daejeon Metropolitan Police Agency didn’t immediately release the personal details of the suspect in the attack on the teacher at Songchon High School, describing him only as a man in his late 20s.
According to police, the suspect waited for the teacher to step out of a classroom before stabbing him and fleeing the scene, which, according to officials, suggests they were acquaintances.
Police and fire department authorities did not specify the teacher’s health condition.
14 hurt in ‘terrifying’ South Korean stabbing incident near Seoul
Yoon also ordered police to mobilise all available resources to ease public concerns, adding officers will be instructed to actively use firearms or taser guns to suppress suspects when violent crimes occur.
“I’ve always been telling my kids to be careful when they go abroad due to gun fears but now I’m more scared of being in South Korea,” Lee Young-ja, a 78-year-old Seongnam resident who fled after hearing people screaming during Thursday’s incident, said.
Another resident in the area, Choi Jun-ho, 26, said he was staying extra vigilant on his way to work on Friday morning, near the mall where the stabbing took place.
“It’s unnerving,” Choi said. “Something like this could happen right next to me.”
On social media, a list of copycat attack threats were circulating.
“I’ve been telling my families and friends to stay home,” a 31-year-old Seoul resident said. She spoke on condition of anonymity due to fears for her safety.
“I hope people posting those threats all get tracked down and harshly punished.”
Thursday’s attack was the country’s second mass-stabbing case involving random targets in a month.
Police Commissioner General Yoon Hee-keun on Thursday warned South Koreans to be on guard for such attacks and told officials to be vigilant.
Experts said there was a risk similar crimes could follow, and urged authorities to swiftly analyse patterns in recent rampage crimes to come up with countermeasures.
“The suspects not having clear motives doesn’t necessarily mean that there’s no way to prevent these crimes,” Kim Do-woo, a police science professor at Kyungnam University, said.
For example, police should closely monitor and proactively intervene when there’s any reports of suspicious acts at crowded public areas as both of the stabbing attacks in recent weeks took place near subway stations, Kim said.
Additional reporting by Associated Press
