Another stabbing attack near Seoul injures 14

The stabbing incident at Seohyeon Station in Bundang District, Seongnam City, Gyeonggi Province, on Aug. 3. [Image captured from Twitter]

South Korea saw another stabbing incident near Seoul, injuring 14 passers-by on Thursday, just 13 days after a similar attack outside of Sillim subway station.

According to Bundang Police Station, a man in his early 20s who works in the delivery business rammed his vehicle into pedestrians on the sidewalk near Seohyeon Station in Bundang District, Seongnam City, Gyeonggi Province, leaving five people injured.

He then entered a nearby shopping mall with a knife and stabbed innocent bystanders as he walked around the store. Nine people were injured in the process.

A total of 14 people were injured and are currently being treated at Seoul National University Bundang Hospital and Cha Hospital. Two of the injured are known to be in critical condition.

The police are investigating the exact circumstances and motives of the crime. It is likely to be a copycat crime of the stabbing incident at Sillim Station, raising concerns over possibilities of other attacks targeting an unspecified number of people.

The incident has raised calls for stricter punishment for deviant behaviors of some socially disaffected people with violent tendencies.

Right after the incident, the police held an emergency national video conference of city and provincial police chiefs chaired by Commissioner General of Korean National Police Agency Yoon Hee-keun. They characterized such random crimes as “de facto terrorist acts” and launched emergency measures, including immediate and intensive deployment of police forces to multiple crowded locations.

“We are in a very serious and urgent situation as similar incidents have occurred again when public anxiety over unmotivated random acts stand at an extremely high level,” Yoon said. “It is no different than a terrorist act in that anyone can become a victim.”

The police have deployed 112 patrol cars and riot squad personnel to population-concentrated locations and are conducting nightly joint patrols with neighborhood watch groups. They will also enhance monitoring at closed-circuit television control centers and pool their investigative efforts to strictly punish crimes related to the murder threats that copy the recent crime at Sillim Station.