A teacher stabbed and killed an eight -year -old student at a South Korean elementary school, a South Korean Agency Yonhap reported.

The 40 -year -old teacher confessed to the crime after police found her injured, along with the girl, inside the Daejon city school on Monday afternoon, local time.

The child was taken to a hospital where he succumbed to his injuries.

The teacher also brought a knife wound to the neck and one hand, which probably caused them on its own.

Police found that the teacher had received sick leave because she was suffering from depression and returned to school at the end of the year.

The little student stayed at school for study after the lessons were over and then went to attend a special painting lesson. When her parents were informed that she did not appear in the special, they called the police.

The teacher underwent surgery and the police will be interrogated later.

South Korea is generally a safe country, with a very low percentage of homicide: 1.3 per 100,000 inhabitants in 2021, according to official statistics. The world average is 6 homicides per 100,000 inhabitants. In 2023, however, there were a series of violent crimes, most with a knife. In August of that year, a high school professor was stabbed in Daetzon.

In the same week, a man pulled passers -by on a pedestrian street in his car and then attacked the customers of a department store with a knife, injuring a total of 14 people. A month earlier, a man was killed in a knife attack and three others were injured.