[Source: Reuters]

South Korean police said they had detained a man suspected of stabbing eight people on Tuesday at a shopping mall in the ​city of Incheon, and the Yonhap news agency said one of the ‌victims was in a life-threatening condition.

Officers are investigating the motive and circumstances of the attack, a police spokesperson said by telephone.

A witness cited by Yonhap said the suspect appeared to have knives tied to ​both hands and moved through several floors of the shopping mall, attacking people ​as he went before being subdued by bystanders and handed over ⁠to police.

President Lee Jae Myung urged a swift and rigorous investigation after visiting the ​Incheon Metropolitan Police Agency and being briefed on the case, according to his office.

“I pray ​for a swift recovery of those who were harmed in today’s stabbing rampage incident,” Lee said in an X post.
The victims included six women and two men, Yonhap reported.

One woman in her 20s ​underwent surgery at a nearby hospital after suffering life-threatening injuries, it added.

Yonhap said the ​59-year-old suspect had previously served a four-year prison sentence for attempted murder.

The suspect has been fitted with ‌an ⁠electronic monitoring ankle bracelet since his release in 2019, and had been receiving treatment for mental health issues and alcohol addiction, the Justice Ministry said in a statement.

The electronic monitoring system is a crime prevention programme that covers people convicted of a range of ​crimes including murder.

The ministry pledged to ​conduct a thorough investigation ⁠of the system, which uses real-time GPS tracking to monitor high-risk offenders after their release from prison.

Incheon, west of Seoul, is home ​to South Korea’s main airport and forms part of the wider ​Seoul metropolitan ⁠area.

South Korea was shaken by a series of stabbing rampages in 2023, including attacks that left multiple people dead and injured.

More recently in May, a 17-year-old girl was fatally stabbed ⁠and another ​teenager hurt in the southwestern city of Gwangju ​by a man in his 20s, who was later sentenced by a court to life in prison.