Brave bystanders hurl chairs to stop knife rampage at Incheon mall

"There are a lot of young people on the fourth floor at the movie theater. I thought, if he gets up there with a knife, it'll be a disaster."

Shin In-su, 65, a merchant at a mixed-use shopping complex in Guwol-dong, Namdong-gu, Incheon, recounted Tuesday how he stepped in to stop suspect A, who went on a random knife rampage targeting members of the public. Shin grabbed a chair and followed the suspect as he slashed his way through the second-floor restaurant area. The moment it crossed his mind that students could be hurt if the attacker reached the movie theater on the fourth floor, he said, his body moved before he could even think.

When the suspect failed to enter the movie theater and came back down the escalator, Shin and other bystanders joined forces to pin him down with chairs.

Shin, who has run a galbi rice-wrap restaurant in the complex for more than 20 years, brushed off a question about whether he was scared. "You think someone who works here is just going to stand there and dance while that's happening?" he said. "I'm just glad he was stopped before he got to the movie theater and it didn't get any worse."

Shin was not the only one who acted. A diner removed his own necktie to apply pressure to a stabbing victim who was bleeding heavily. Another restaurant owner said customers eating at the time all stepped up without hesitation. "Someone was looking for cloth to stop the bleeding, so I handed over a clean dish towel I had just washed," the owner said. Some bystanders reportedly grabbed whatever they could find — including full-length umbrellas — and chased after the attacker.

A restaurant owner surnamed Kim, who witnessed the attack from the start, said a group of Daiso employees happened to be eating at the food court entrance when the suspect appeared. "He started swinging the knife without a moment's hesitation," Kim said. After that, some customers fled in panic while others threw chairs to try to stop him.

Choi, 63, who runs a ramyun restaurant at the complex, said she initially thought a fight had broken out when she heard shouting and chairs being thrown. When she realized the man was wielding a knife, she hid behind the kitchen counter with her husband. "My husband wanted to go out there, and I stopped him the whole time," she said. She added that the attacker appeared to target women in particular.

Choi said her daughter had immediately ordered a gas gun after hearing about Tuesday's attack. "I took herbal medicine just to come to work today," she said. "Even a small noise startles me now."

All eight people seriously injured in Tuesday's knife attack are receiving hospital treatment. One woman in her 20s suffered cardiac arrest during the incident; her pulse has been restored, but she remains unconscious. Two women in their 40s are also being treated for stab wounds, including injuries to their ribs.

The suspect told police he had taken medication at the time of the attack, but a preliminary drug test came back negative. He was also found to be carrying a large quantity of medication when arrested. The suspect had previously served four years in prison after being convicted of attempted murder of his ex-wife and was wearing a court-ordered electronic monitoring ankle bracelet at the time of the attack.

Police said they would deploy three criminal profilers to determine the motive behind the attack. The Incheon Namdong Police Station said it planned to apply for a detention warrant for the suspect by the end of Wednesday.

Acting Korean National Police Agency Commissioner General Kim Jong-cheol visited the scene Tuesday and pledged full support for the victims. "We will assign a dedicated victim-support officer to each victim on a one-on-one basis to provide legal, psychological and financial assistance, and we will spare no effort to help them recover from the trauma of this incident and return to their daily lives," he said.