South Korea has experienced a wave of attacks in recent weeks. On Thursday afternoon, a man left at least 14 injured in an attack at the Seohyeon shopping center. After 24 hours, another individual stabbed a teacher at a Daejeon school.
These attacks are not the first to take place this summer in the South Korean country, since on July 21 there was another case of aggression with a knife.
How did the attacks take place?
The first incident took place on July 21 near the Seoul subway station.. According to testimonies collected in local media, a man injured several people with a knife, claiming that he did not want to live because things were not going as he wished.
Thirteen days later, on August 3, a second attack took place at a shopping mall near the Seohyeon subway station in Seongnam City.. An individual ran over five people and later indiscriminately stabbed users who were shopping. The detainee suffers from a social phobia disorder and is diagnosed with schizoid personality disorder
A few hours later, during the early hours of August 4, another man entered a Daejeon school posing as a graduate and stabbed one of the teachers.. The three subjects were identified and detained by South Korean police moments after the incidents.
How many victims are there in all?
The three attacks have left a total of 2 dead and 18 injured. The incident that occurred in Seoul claimed the first fatality and left three people injured. The second death occurred in the Seohyeon shopping center, where 14 people were also injured.. The attack at the Daejeon school has resulted in only one victim, the stabbed teacher from whose state no further information has been disclosed.
They are related?
Police did not offer any immediate information on a potential motive.. The head of the National Police agency described the attacks as “virtually an act of terrorism”, The Guardian reports.. However, it is believed that in the case of the Daejeon teacher, the assailant knew the victim. A witness testified that he heard the teacher say: “It's my fault.”
Are new attacks expected?
A series of anonymous individuals threatened this past Friday to carry out stabbings an hour after the attack in Seohyeon took place.. Several threatening texts circulated on social networks in which they threatened “mass stabbings” at Ori station, also south of Seoul, with the aim of “killing as many people as possible”.
In a second text, another individual shared a photo of a gun and threatened to kill 20 people.. The authorities indicated that two other texts were received a few hours later with similar threats.
What does the Police recommend?
The National Police Agency held a meeting on Thursday with regional police chiefs to discuss ways to prevent and act on cases of stabbings and other attacks against random targets.. Police Commissioner General Yoon Hee-keun advised South Koreans to be on their guard against such attacks and urged officials to be on the lookout for possible copycat crimes.