INCHEON — A man in his 50s stabbed people at random inside a commercial complex in Guwol-dong, Incheon, leaving seven people injured and one more taken to a hospital in cardiac arrest. A bystander who helped subdue the suspect at the scene described the chaos: "It happened in an instant. There was blood on the floor and people were screaming and running for the exits. It was pandemonium."
According to fire authorities and police, a call reporting a stabbing at the food court of a commercial complex in Guwol-dong, Namdong-gu, Incheon, came into the 119 emergency line at about 1:49 p.m. on the 13th. Police and paramedics responded to the scene, where they subdued and arrested the suspect, a man in his 50s identified only as A. Eight food court customers were injured and taken to hospitals.
The injured were identified as two women in their 20s, a man in his 30s, a man in his 40s, a woman in her 40s and a woman in her 50s. One of the women in her 20s was found in cardiac arrest and is being treated at a nearby hospital. The other seven suffered injuries including contusions to the ribs, shoulder and back, a laceration to the chest and bruising to the wrist. Fire authorities set up an emergency medical post on the first floor at about 2:12 p.m., anticipating a large number of casualties.
The suspect began on the second basement level, where a large supermarket is located, and moved up through the building by escalator while swinging the knife. He wounded one person on the first basement level, six on the second floor and one on the third floor. After trying to reach the fourth floor and finding it blocked, he was subdued by other customers as he came back down to the third floor. A witness at the scene said several knives were found in a bag the suspect was carrying.
Witnesses described a scene of panic. Kim Cheol, 54, who helped subdue the suspect, said: "I was coming out of the restroom and heard loud noises, so I thought a fight had broken out. But there was blood on the floor, and I saw the man holding a knife about 30 to 40 centimeters long, stabbing anyone he could see." He added: "People were rushing to get away, but there was no one there to restrain him, so a few of the men who were there threw chairs at him to defend themselves." He said he remembered that most of the victims had been eating, and that he shouted at business owners on other floors to evacuate.
Merchants nearby could not hide their shock. One, who saw the suspect being taken away by police, said: "Suddenly there were loud noises from upstairs that sounded like an argument, and then I heard screaming." The merchant added: "When he was being led away by police, there was so much blood on his hands and face that it was shocking." Another merchant, who runs a jewelry shop on the first floor, said: "The screaming kept going, but there was no announcement telling us to evacuate, so I felt uneasy."
The suspect had previously been sentenced to four years in prison for attempted murder and committed the latest attack while wearing an electronic ankle monitor following his release. He had also been booked last month after being found carrying a knife in front of a hospital in Gyeyang-gu, Incheon. According to police, he had been staging a one-man protest outside that hospital for about two months, complaining that treatment he received there for a fungal foot infection had produced no improvement.
Police said they are focusing on the possibility that the attack was a motiveless crime while keeping all possibilities open, including that it was premeditated. They plan to question the suspect about any relationship with the victims, his exact motive and how he obtained the knives. Motiveless crimes have occurred steadily each year. Data submitted to Seoul Economic Daily by the Korean National Police Agency showed 19 such crimes nationwide in the first half of this year. A total of 127 motiveless crimes were recorded from 2023, when police began classifying the category, through last year.
Experts said early identification of ex-offenders who pose a risk of further crimes is critical. Kim Sang-gyun, a professor of police science at Baekseok University, said: "Crimes that take place in exposed public settings are, apart from cases where the attacker knows the victim, generally close to motiveless crimes. Someone wearing an ankle monitor for attempted murder is likely to be carrying anger or resentment over being isolated from society." He added: "To prevent such crimes, there has to be early intervention and screening — including supervision of ex-offenders — for people at high risk, such as those with prior violent convictions or conditions like impulse control disorder."