SEOUL, SOUTH KOREA — One person was killed and three more wounded when a man went on a “stabbing rampage” near a subway station in the South Korean capital Seoul on Friday, police told AFP.
The attack took place near the Sillim Subway Station in southwest Seoul, police said, adding that the suspect had been detained by police at the scene.
“The suspect is a man in his 30s and he did not look intoxicated. We are questioning him as to the motive of his crime,” they said.
The Yonhap News Agency reported that the attack happened near Exit 4 of the subway station at 2:07 pm (0507 GMT).
A video posted on local television station YTN’s YouTube channel showed orange-vested emergency responders running towards the incident carrying stretchers.
Police had cordoned off the area with yellow tape, the footage showed.
“The man shouted he didn’t want to live anymore as he was being apprehended by the police,” YTN reported.
South Korea is typically an extremely safe country, with a murder rate of just 1.3 per 100,000 people in 2021, according to official statistics.
By comparison, America has 7.8 homicide deaths per 100,000 people, according to the country’s Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
The rare incident in Seoul quickly began circulating on Korean-language social media.
“Don’t come to Sillim now. There is a crazy man on a stabbing rampage. I called the police after seeing a person injured on the ground,” one user with the handle sanong_cos wrote on Twitter.
— AFP
