A student tried to escape to a nearby park by the lake and jumped into the water, but police caught him just 12 minutes after they received the initial call, as reported by Cheongju police.
The 18-year-old was taken to a hospital due to minor wounds.
“We are working to uncover the specifics and motivations behind this incident,” stated a local police official to AFP.
Authorities later reported seizing four different weapons, including a box cutter, from the student.
“The weapons were found in the student’s bag upon their arrival at school, suggesting that the teachers were unaware of their presence,” a high school representative said during a press briefing.
Yoon Geon-young, the superintendent of education for the Chungbuk province, told reporters that the “situation was unexpected and should not have occurred”.
“Fortunately, the students remained unharmed and were neither direct witnesses to the event nor affected by it emotionally,” Yoon remarked.
This incident follows closely after a teacher fatally attacked an eight-year-old student at an elementary school in South Korea.
Nonetheless, South Korea is considered a very safe nation, reporting a murder rate of 1.3 per 100,000 individuals in 2021, according to official data—significantly lower than the global average of six homicide deaths per 100,000 people.
