Eight hurt in stabbing at Incheon supermarket, South Korea; suspect arrested

Mixed · 2A stabbing at a supermarket in the South Korean city of Incheon on Tuesday 13 October 2026 left several people wounded, one of them in cardiac arrest. 1 2 Mixed · 2An official from the Central Disaster and Safety Countermeasures Headquarters initially told AFP that one person was in cardiac arrest and around seven others had been injured. 1 2 Centre · 1A later CNA report put the toll at eight people wounded, including the person in cardiac arrest, citing police. 3

Centre · 1Local media reported that a male suspect had been arrested, and a police spokesperson said officers responding to the scene arrested a male suspect and were investigating the motive and circumstances of the attack. 1 3 Right · 1AP, citing police and fire officials, reported that Incheon's Namdong District Police Station detained a 59-year-old suspect, whom bystanders subdued after he attacked shoppers as he moved through the mall. 4 Left · 1Incheon's fire department said the person in cardiac arrest was a woman in her 20s who underwent surgery after arriving at hospital. 5

Right · 1AP, quoting Yonhap, said a witness described the suspect as appearing to have knives strapped to both hands; the witness said he began stabbing people at a discount store on the mall's basement level and continued up an escalator before several people subdued him. 4 Mixed · 2The Daily Mirror named the site as the Homeplus Guwol branch in Namdong-gu, said an emergency report was filed at about 1:49pm local time, and said police estimated 6 to 8 customers were hurt; Anadolu, citing the Korea Herald, described the man as in his 60s and the store as a Homeplus hypermarket. 6 7 Centre · 1Incheon lies west of Seoul, is home to South Korea's main airport and forms part of the wider Seoul metropolitan area. 3

Mixed · 2Coverage notes that South Korea is generally considered safe, with a homicide rate of 1.3 per 100,000 people in 2021, but has seen several stabbing attacks in recent years, including a man stabbing three police officers in May 2025 and three people stabbed to death at a Seoul pizza restaurant that September. 3 2 Centre · 1CNA's later report also recalled a May stabbing in Gwangju in which a 17-year-old girl was killed and another teenager hurt; the man in his 20s responsible was sentenced to life in prison. 3 Left · 1The motive has not been reported, and police have not given the full extent of the other victims' injuries or the current condition of the woman in cardiac arrest, who underwent surgery. 5