[Yonhap]
[Yonhap]

A man in his 40s was arrested after attempting to set fire to a Seoul subway car using a lighter and an insecticide spray.

According to Seoul Jung-bu Police Station, officers arrested the suspect, identified only as A, on Sunday at around 9:12 p.m. on charges of attempted arson of an occupied railcar on Seoul Subway Line 4.

A is accused of igniting a lighter and spraying insecticide toward an emergency door-release device inside a train traveling from Myeong-dong Station toward Chungmuro Station.

Passengers immediately intervened and restrained A, preventing the incident from developing into an actual fire.

Police arrived at the scene at around 9:25 p.m. — approximately 10 minutes after receiving the emergency call — and took A into custody on the spot.

Investigators are looking into the exact motive and circumstances behind the incident and are reviewing whether to seek an arrest warrant.

Samsung and SK Group on Tuesday unveiled plans to invest a combined 800 trillion won ($578 billion) in what would be the Honam region's first "mega fab" — a semiconductor production hub comparable in scale to the Greater Seoul area — as part of a broader push to ease the global memory chip shortage driven by surging AI demand.


rainbow@heraldcorp.com