Man Arrested After Stabbing Eight People at Incheon Supermarket

Police in Incheon arrested a 59-year-old man on Tuesday after he stabbed eight people inside a Homeplus supermarket complex. The attack began at 1:40 p.m. local time while the suspect moved on an escalator between the second basement floor and the second floor above ground. He had knives fastened to both hands.

Shoppers used chairs to block his path and subdued him before officers arrived. All eight victims — six women and two men — were taken to hospital. One woman in her twenties arrived in cardiac arrest, underwent emergency surgery, and later regained a pulse but remained unconscious. The remaining seven sustained injuries of varying severity.

The suspect was wearing an electronic monitoring ankle bracelet at the time. He had been ordered to wear the device for ten years, until February 2029, after serving a four-year prison sentence for the attempted murder of his former wife. Police said he was carrying a large quantity of drugs and told officers he had taken them before the attack. He had also been questioned last month on suspicion of carrying a knife during a one-person protest outside an Incheon hospital.

The Justice Ministry issued a public apology and said it would review the electronic monitoring and supervision system. President Lee Jae Myung called for a thorough investigation and special measures against violent crime. Officers from Namdong Police Station are questioning the man about his motive. Knife attacks of this scale remain uncommon in South Korea; the last comparable supermarket incident occurred several years earlier.

The commercial building was cordoned off while investigators collected evidence. No additional casualties were reported after the initial eight. The suspect remains in custody. Further details on the victims’ conditions and the precise sequence of the attack are expected once the police complete their interviews.