A man has been arrested after stabbing several people at a supermarket in Incheon, in a rare knife attack in South Korea.
Eight people were wounded in the incident on Tuesday afternoon, according to local news reports.
The 59-year-old suspect was reported to have carried out the attack at 13:40 local time (05:40 BST) with knives strapped to both of his hands, while travelling on an escalator, according to Incheon Namdong Police Station.
The man was subdued by bystanders who used chairs to block his path and was later detained by police officers.
Law enforcement is currently investigating the suspect’s motives for the attack, which took place at a local outlet of Homeplus, one of South Korea’s largest discount supermarket chains.
All eight victims – six women and two men – were taken to the hospital.
One of them suffered from “cardiac arrest”, while the others had injuries to their back and shoulders.
In response to the casualties, authorities had set up an emergency medical centre on the building’s first floor.
According to local reports, authorities recovered ten knives from the suspect’s backpack.
The suspect was wearing an electronic monitoring ankle bracelet at the time of the attack.
Reports said he had been previously convicted for attempted murder after he stabbed his ex-wife, and had spent four years in prison.
He had also reportedly been booked by police last month on suspicion of carrying a knife while holding a one-man protest in front of an Incheon hospital over medical treatment he had received.
The attack happened in a country known for its high public safety standards.
South Korea recorded about 0.5 homicides per 100,000 people in 2024, according to Statistics Korea. That is about one-tenth of the global average.
However, a series of seemingly random and violent attacks across the country in 2023, which resulted in multiple fatalities and injuries, caused widespread fear.
Such attacks were known as ‘Mudjima’ or ‘Don’t Ask Why’ crimes, a term used to describe acts of violence targeting strangers conducted by people with no personal link to the victims nor had obvious motives.
In April 2025, a man in his thirties attacked random strangers at a supermarket resulting in the death of a woman in her sixties.
(BBC News)