An injured person is transported to a hospital after a knife attack at a large commercial complex housing a Homeplus store in Incheon's Gwol-dong on Tuesday. [Yonhap]
An injured person is transported to a hospital after a knife attack at a large commercial complex housing a Homeplus store in Incheon's Gwol-dong on Tuesday. [Yonhap]

A 23-year-old office worker stopped a knife-wielding attacker at a large commercial complex in Incheon's Namdong-gu by hurling a chair at him, it has emerged.

According to Incheon police and the fire department, a 59-year-old man identified only as A, who has a prior conviction for attempted murder, began attacking random bystanders with a knife at around 1:40 p.m. Tuesday at a large commercial complex in Gwol-dong that houses a Homeplus supermarket and a movie theater. He was eventually subdued by members of the public. The building has Homeplus on its basement first through third floors, a restaurant area on the second above-ground floor, and a movie theater on the fourth floor.

A had knives bound to both hands and moved between multiple floors as he slashed at people. Eight people were seriously injured and taken to hospital.

The person credited with playing a decisive role in stopping A was Shin Jung-hyun, 23, an office worker, according to Yonhap. Shin had been on his way to see a film at the fourth-floor movie theater with his girlfriend.

"At first I heard a loud noise that sounded like children playing around, so I went closer — and it turned out to be screams and shouts of 'help me' and 'run,'" Shin told Yonhap by phone Tuesday.

A was climbing up the down escalator toward the fourth floor, knife in hand. Shin said his first instinct was to flee, but he noticed that most of the moviegoers around him were young children and women.

"I thought that if this man made it to the fourth floor, everyone would really die," Shin said.

Shin grabbed a backless chair nearby and moved toward the escalator railing. When A was nearly at the top and the back of his head became visible over the railing, Shin hurled the chair at him with full force.

A collapsed where he stood. Shin shouted to people on the floor below to hold him down, and bystanders pinned A to the ground using chairs.

"I later saw on the news that he had been stabbing everyone in sight," Shin said. "If he had made it to the fourth floor, we wouldn't have been safe either."

He added: "There were so many young children, but honestly I did it because I wanted to survive. I'm just glad we were able to prevent greater harm."

A was sentenced to four years in prison in 2015 on charges of attempting to murder his ex-wife and served his sentence. After his release, he was required to wear an electronic ankle monitor until February 2029 and committed the attack while under that condition. Last month, police booked him on charges of carrying a knife.

According to the Ministry of Justice, A had received treatment for alcohol addiction and psychological counseling on the morning of the attack and had shared lunch with his probation officer until about an hour before the rampage.

Of the eight injured, a woman in her 20s who was transported to hospital in cardiac arrest underwent emergency surgery and was admitted to the intensive care unit but had not regained consciousness. Police plan to apply for an arrest warrant for A on Wednesday after investigating his motive.


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