Eight Injured in Stabbing at Incheon Supermarket in South Korea

Eight people were injured when a man attacked shoppers with knives at a Homeplus supermarket in Incheon, South Korea, on Tuesday afternoon, October 13, 2026. Police detained the 59-year-old suspect after bystanders intervened, while investigators began examining the motive behind the attack.

The victims comprised six women and two men, according to local media reports. All eight were taken to hospitals for treatment, and one woman in her 20s suffered cardiac arrest before undergoing surgery, according to Incheon fire officials.

Authorities established an emergency medical center on the building's first floor to respond to the casualties, according to the BBC. The severity of the other victims' injuries was not immediately detailed by the fire department, ABC News reported.

Police said the suspect was subdued by people at the shopping complex before officers took him into custody. His motive remained unclear as the investigation continued.

According to reports cited by the BBC, the suspect had knives strapped to both hands when the attack began at approximately 1:40 p.m. local time. A witness quoted by South Korea's Yonhap News Agency said the man initially attacked people in a discount store on the mall's basement level, then continued stabbing shoppers as he moved up an escalator.

Local media reported that investigators recovered 10 knives from the suspect's backpack. The BBC also reported that he was wearing an electronic monitoring ankle bracelet when police detained him.

The suspect had previously been convicted of attempted murder after stabbing his former wife and had served four years in prison, according to the BBC. He was also reportedly questioned by police the previous month over allegations that he carried a knife while staging a one-man protest outside an Incheon hospital concerning medical treatment he had received.

The attack occurred in a country with a comparatively low homicide rate. Statistics Korea recorded approximately 0.5 homicides per 100,000 people in 2024, around one-tenth of the global average, according to the BBC.

However, South Korea has experienced several high-profile stabbing attacks in recent years. A wave of apparently indiscriminate violence in 2023 caused widespread public concern, with such incidents commonly described as crimes without an apparent motive or personal connection between attackers and victims.

In April 2025, a man in his 30s attacked strangers at a supermarket, killing a woman in her 60s, according to the BBC. Yahoo also cited other deadly incidents in 2025, including a September stabbing at a Seoul restaurant that killed three people and a separate May incident in which three police officers were killed.