South Korean High School Student Stabs 4 in Knife Attack

A teenage student stabbed at least four people, including the school’s headmaster, in a knife attack at a high school in Cheongju, South Korea, on Monday.

The incident occurred around 8:36 am, with police reporting that the student used a knife to attack people in a classroom.

The headmaster suffered a stab wound to the abdomen, while a government employee was stabbed in the chest and the school’s janitor was stabbed in the back. Three other people suffered minor injuries, including a 43-year-old man who was stabbed in the face.

He said he was driving slowly “when the student came up and knocked on the door”.

“I opened the window and he stabbed my face without saying anything before running away,” Im, 43, said.

The 18-year-old student attempted to flee to a nearby lakeside park, where he jumped into the lake, but was apprehended 12 minutes later. Police confiscated four different weapons, including a box cutter, from the student.

The student had apparently brought the items to school in their bag, and others were not aware of it. “We are trying to determine the details and motive,” a local police official said.

Superintendent of Education for Chungbuk province, Yoon Geon-young, expressed regret over the incident, saying it was “unpredictable and should never have happened.” Fortunately, the students remained safe and were not directly affected by the incident.

“In this case, the student had the items in their bag from the time they arrived at school, so it seems that others (the teachers) were not aware of it,” a high school official told a media briefing.

“Fortunately, the students remained safe and were neither direct witnesses to the situation nor traumatised by it,” Yoon said.

This incident follows a similar attack in South Korea earlier, where a teacher fatally stabbed an eight-year-old student. Despite this, South Korea is generally considered a safe country, with a low murder rate of 1.3 per 100,000 people.