A man suspected of going on a stabbing rampage at a mall in South Korea said he was trying to draw public attention.
The suspect, who wasn’t named, attacked shoppers as he moved through the mall in Incheon on Tuesday until he was subdued by bystanders, police said.
He injured six women and two men, and told investigators he had targeted people he thought were physically weaker than him.
The man said he held a grudge against a local hospital that had treated him for athlete’s foot because his symptoms had not improved, police said.
Police had questioned the suspect in September after he staged protests outside the hospital carrying a weapon.
“I committed the crime to attract attention and make my grievances known to society,” he was quoted as saying by police.
“I did not choose specific targets. I chose people who looked weaker than me."
The suspect added that he did not intend to kill any of the people he attacked.
The man had a history of violence and mental illness and was required to wear an electronic monitor, the South Korean justice ministry said.
He was sentenced to four years in prison for attempted murder in 2015, according to Yonhap news agency. He was placed under electronic monitoring in 2019 and had committed no repeat offences while under supervision.
The stabbing occurred in a commercial building housing a Homeplus supermarket at around 1.40pm local time.
Eyewitnesses said the suspect appeared to carry knives tied to both his hands and stabbed people in different parts of the mall while moving up and down on an escalator.
One victim, 19, was taken to hospital with cardiac arrest, underwent emergency surgery and remained unconscious and on a ventilator. Five were being treated at local hospitals while two were recovering at home, the police said.
Nah Hyun Joon, who helped subdue the suspect alongside several other people using chairs, told OBS television that he saw him attack about four people in the second-floor food court before moving up to the third floor, where he stabbed at least one woman.
Mr Nah said the man then headed towards a multiplex cinema on the fourth floor but was blocked by several people holding chairs at the top of the escalator, and that he and others trapped him from below and pushed him down with chairs near the escalator’s third-floor entrance before removing his knives.
“He just went around stabbing people,” Mr Nah told OBS. “He didn’t even say anything. He just stabbed whoever he saw.”
On the day of the attack, the suspect attended a counselling session from 10am to 11am and met his probation officer from 11.20am to 11.55am, the ministry said.
The officer said he had taken his medication and had lunch with him until 12.30pm, while authorities detected no attempts to destroy his monitoring device.
Police and city officials were reportedly considering commendations for five people who helped subdue the suspect.
“There were two people who overpowered the suspect at great risk to themselves. They helped prevent further harm,” Incheon mayor Park Chan Dae said on Facebook.
“The city is also considering ways to show our gratitude towards them.”
While South Korea has a low murder rate of 1.3 per 100,000 people – below the global average of six per 100,000 – it has witnessed several high-profile violent crimes, including stabbings, in recent years.
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