Key facts
- A woman in her 50s stabbed a psychiatry professor at Severance Hospital in Seoul on November 4, 2026, police said.
- The victim, identified by the surname Kang, suffered a hand injury requiring surgery and cuts to his face and head.
- Police arrested the suspect at the scene on charges of aggravated assault and are considering an attempted murder charge.
- The suspect had previously received treatment from the injured professor, according to police.
- The 2019 Im Se-won Act requires larger hospitals to install alert systems and deploy security staff but not bells in every consultation room.
A psychiatry professor at Severance Hospital in Seoul's Seodaemun district was stabbed in a consultation room on November 4, 2026, according to police accounts carried by KBS News and The Seoul Economic Daily. The victim, identified by the surname Kang, suffered a wound to the hand that required surgery and cuts to his face and head, the primary report said. The Seoul Economic Daily reported a stab wound about 5 centimeters long and said the injuries were not life-threatening.
Police arrested a woman in her 50s at the scene on charges of aggravated assault, KBS News reported. Hospital staff restrained the attacker and pressed an emergency bell, and officers arrived about seven minutes after the incident. Police said the woman had previously received treatment from the injured professor and was not a patient waiting for treatment at the time. KBS News reported that she brought the weapon in advance, and police are investigating the motive and considering an attempted murder charge.
The attack came nearly eight years after the December 2018 killing of psychiatry professor Im Se-won at Kangbuk Samsung Hospital, which prompted the National Assembly in 2019 to pass the so-called Im Se-won Act. The law requires hospitals above a certain size to install emergency alert systems and deploy dedicated security personnel, but does not mandate emergency bells in every consultation room, the Seoul Economic Daily reported.
South Korea's leading medical bodies called for urgent new security measures after the attack, the primary report said.