After the attack on a high school teacher, a stabbing suspect from South Korea is detained

In the city of Daejeon, South Korean police apprehended a guy who is thought to have stabbed a high school teacher with a knife on Friday. The incident comes after a another, seemingly random one on Thursday that left 14 people injured close to a major metro station in Seongnam.

The suspect in the assault on the teacher at Songchon High School on Friday morning was not immediately identified by Daejeon Metropolitan Police Agency officials, who only gave the general description of a guy in his late 20s.

The fact that the suspect allegedly waited for the instructor to exit a classroom before stabbing him and running from the scene shows that the two men may have known one another, according to the police. The teacher’s health status was not disclosed by the police or fire department officials.

The incident in Daejeon, which is roughly 120 kilometers (75 miles) south of Seongnam, happened a few hours after President Yoon Suk Yeol called for “ultra-strong” law enforcement steps to restore confidence in public safety after Thursday’s bloodshed, which he termed as a “terrorist attack on innocent citizens.”

Following the attack on Thursday in Seongnam, where a car rammed onto a sidewalk before the driver stepped out and started stabbing people at random at a shopping center connected to the Seohyeon subway station at the center of a busy entertainment and business district, at least two people were in life-threatening conditions.

At least two of the five victims of the car’s injuries were hospitalized in serious condition. Eight of the nine people who were stabbed were receiving critical medical attention, according to representatives of the Gyeonggi Province fire department.

The 22-year-old suspect is being questioned by the police. They did not name the person or provide any right away information about a possible motive.

According to Park Gyeong-won, a police officer at Gyeonggi’s Bundang district police station, the suspect spoke incoherently and claimed he was being pursued by an unidentified source during police interrogation.

According to Park, the suspect bought the two knives he used in the stabbings on Wednesday from a separate mall, but there isn’t conclusive proof he planned the assault in advance.

forensic teams were seen inspecting the AK Plaza’s hallways in photos taken at the area on Thursday, the day of the incident. On a sidewalk next to the metro station, a white Kia hatchback with a busted front glass and a flat front tire could be observed.

Hwang Hee-woon, a witness, told YTN news that he “heard a sound from the first floor that seemed like a scream, so customers and shop workers were gathering on the rails of the second floor near the escalator to see what was happening below.”

We fled in fear when someone abruptly informed us that the criminal was approaching the second level, he said. He eventually joined several mall staff in hiding behind a refrigerator storage area.

In a month, the nation has had two instances of large-scale stabbings that involved random targets.

One person was killed in July when a guy with a knife attacked at least four people on a roadway in Seoul, the nation’s capital. In South Korea, where gun ownership is strictly regulated, assaults using weapons are uncommon, but there are no appreciable limitations on the use of knives, especially kitchen knives that are often used in attacks.

Yoon demanded, according to his office, that additional law enforcement personnel be sent out to prevent future crimes and that they be provided with stronger suppressing equipment in reaction to Thursday’s assault.

Yoon Hee-keun, the commissioner general of the National Police Agency, announced the beginning of an indefinite “special surveillance” period in response to the president’s remarks. During this time, police officers will increase patrols and stop-and-search operations to look out for “people suspected of carrying weapons or acting abnormally.”

In cases of serious crimes, police personnel will also be taught to aggressively use weapons or tasers to subdue criminals, according to Yoon.