South Korea horrified as teacher stabs student to death

A teacher is in hospital with stab wounds after allegedly stabbing a young student to death at school.

A teacher stabbed an eight-year-old student to death at an elementary school in South Korea on Monday, local media reported, citing authorities.

The teacher, a woman in her 40s, confessed to the crime after police officers found her and the young girl with stab wounds at the elementary school in the central city of Daejeon on Monday evening, the Yonhap news agency reported.

The girl, named as Kim Ha-neul, was brought to hospital “in an unconscious state, but she later died”, the report read.

The teacher had stab wounds on her neck and arm, which officials determined may have been self-inflicted, according to the news agency.

A portrait of Kim Ha-neul is set up at a funeral hall in Daejeon. Picture: Yonhap

“Police found that the teacher had taken a leave of absence due to depression and returned to the school late last year,” the report said.

The student was at the school for after-class child care before she was due to attend a private art class.

The teacher and the girl were found by police at around 6pm local time after the child’s parents reported her missing from the art class.

The teacher underwent surgery for her wounds, and police said they would resume questioning her later, Yonhap reported.

The Korea Times reports that the teacher bought knife from a nearby store during the lunch break earlier in the day.

She had reportedly planned to kill the last student who left the class that day.

The teacher allegedly lured the girl into the “room by offering her a book, then strangled and stabbed the girl”.

The attacker planned to die from suicide after the attack and the girl was targeted randomly, the Korea Times reported.

The teacher was angry at the school’s vice principal after being barred from teaching, the outlet stated.

The attack has shocked South Korea and citizens left flowers and notes outside her school as a tribute.

The victim was a huge fan of South Korean girl group Ive, and particularly singer Jang Won-young who she wanted to emulate. The group’s members sent a wreath to the funeral hall at Konyang University, local media reported.

People mourn the death of a pupil stabbed to death allegedly by a teacher, outside of an elementary school in Daejeon, South Korea, Tuesday, Feb. 11, 2025. (Kang Soo-hwan/Yonhap via AP)

South Korea is generally a very safe country, with a murder rate of 1.3 per 100,000 people in 2021, according to official statistics, below the global average of six homicide deaths per 100,000 people.

The country witnessed a string of high-profile violent crime incidents in 2023, however, including several stabbings.

In August of that year, a high school teacher was reportedly attacked with a knife, also in Daejeon, around 140km south of the capital Seoul.

In the same week, an attacker drove a car into a pedestrian walkway in the city of Bundang, near Seoul, before attacking people at a department store with a knife.

And in July 2023, a person was killed and three wounded in another stabbing in Seoul.

Originally published as South Korea horrified as teacher stabs student to death