S.Korean police detain man over stabbing of eight people at shopping mall

SEOUL: South Korean police said they had detained a man suspected of stabbing eight people on Tuesday at a shopping mall in the city of Incheon, and the Yonhap news agency said one of the victims was in a life-threatening condition.

Officers are investigating the motive and circumstances of the attack, a police spokesperson said by telephone.

A witness cited by Yonhap said the suspect appeared to have knives tied to both hands and moved through several floors of the shopping mall, attacking people as he went before being subdued by bystanders and handed over to police.

President Lee Jae Myung urged a swift and rigorous investigation after visiting the Incheon Metropolitan Police Agency and being briefed on the case, according to his office.

"I pray for a swift recovery of those who were harmed in today's stabbing rampage incident," Lee said in an X post.

The victims included six women and two men, Yonhap reported. One woman in her 20s underwent surgery at a nearby hospital after suffering life-threatening injuries, it added.

Yonhap said the 59-year-old suspect had previously served a four-year prison sentence for attempted murder.

The suspect has been fitted with an electronic monitoring ankle bracelet since his release in 2019, and had been receiving treatment for mental health issues and alcohol addiction, the Justice Ministry said in a statement.

The electronic monitoring system is a crime prevention programme that covers people convicted of a range of crimes including murder.

The ministry pledged to conduct a thorough investigation of the system, which uses real-time GPS tracking to monitor high-risk offenders after their release from prison.

Incheon, west of Seoul, is home to South Korea's main airport and forms part of the wider Seoul metropolitan area.

South Korea was shaken by a series of stabbing rampages in 2023, including attacks that left multiple people dead and injured.

More recently in May, a 17-year-old girl was fatally stabbed and another teenager hurt in the southwestern city of Gwangju by a man in his 20s, who was later sentenced by a court to life in prison.