Stabbing at Incheon supermarket injures at least six, police say
A man attacked shoppers at a Homeplus branch in Incheon, South Korea, on Tuesday, 13 October, and was arrested, police said. Media reports put the number injured at up to eight, with one person in cardiac arrest.
What happened
A man attacked shoppers at a branch of the Homeplus supermarket chain in Incheon, South Korea, on Tuesday, 13 October, according to police. The Incheon Metropolitan Police said the attack took place at around 1:50 p.m. local time and that the man was taken into custody. Incheon is a port city near Seoul, and the attack happened inside a store in a large shopping complex. The figures on injuries differ between reports, so the total should be read as a range rather than a single number.
Casualties and conditions
Media reports on Tuesday put the number injured at up to eight people. Police said at least six people were hurt, and the condition of the victims was not immediately clear in early reports. Authorities told AFP that one person was in cardiac arrest and about seven others had been injured. Media reports said one victim had suffered a cardiorespiratory arrest and that the other seven were taken to hospital.
The suspect and the arrest
Police arrested one man and are investigating his motive. Media reports said a 60-year-old man was detained and questioned by South Korean authorities on suspicion of carrying out the attack. Witnesses quoted in those reports said the man had knives tied to his hands when he attacked people in the store. He was subdued by customers as he climbed the escalators to the second floor of the complex, the witnesses said. Video from local news media showed authorities escorting a man outside the store.
Response at the scene
Emergency crews were sent to the complex, and a medical station was set up inside the building in anticipation of a high number of casualties, media reports said. The seven people taken to hospital were moved from the complex in the hours after the attack, according to the same reports. Incheon sits close to Seoul, which put the incident within reach of the capital's emergency and news coverage.
What remains unclear
The motive is still under investigation by police, and the sources do not say what led the man to attack shoppers. The articles do not say whether the number of injured has changed since the earlier reports. The count itself differs, with up to eight in media reports and at least six in the police account. The condition of the victims was not immediately clear in the early reports.
