Increasing number of online murder threat posts spark fears

SWAT officers stand at the platform of Ori Station in Seongnam, Gyeonggi, on Friday as an anonymous post warned of a knife attack in the area. [NEWS1]

Police are investigating a series of murder threat posts posted online following a stabbing rampage in Bundang, Gyeonggi, on Thursday night.

Amid the public’s rising fear of such crimes, the National Police Agency on Friday began a special enforcement operation against heinous crimes.

Yoon Hee-keun, the chief of the National Police Agency, said police will selectively search the personal belongings of people suspected of carrying a weapon.

Yoon also stressed that police will use force, including guns and tasers, against suspects when necessary.

The declaration comes as the number of online posts threatening copycat attacks surges. The Seoul Metropolitan Police Agency said on Friday it received at least 12 reports about such threats expected to occur around Seoul.

“I will kill 20 people near Jamsil Station tomorrow morning,” an anonymous user wrote online at around 7:02 p.m. Thursday. “Can you stop me from carrying knives?”

In another post written at around 2 a.m. Friday, the writer threatened to kill 100 people at Gangnam Station in southern Seoul at 7 p.m. Friday.

According to the Gyeonggi Nambu Provincial Police, a post on Telegram on Thursday warned of a knife attack at Ori Station in Seongnam, Gyeonggi. It said a stabbing rampage would take place between 6 p.m. and 10 p.m. on Friday.

“I do not want to live and will kill as many people as possible, including the police,” the post read.

“My ex-girlfriend is living in the area so I hope people she knows die.”

There was also a post threatening a knife attack at Seomyeon Station in Busan on Saturday.

“I will carry a weapon to Seomyeon Station and stab people at 5 p.m. tomorrow,” the post's title read.

All the posts were deleted, but the police are going after the writers by tracking down their IP addresses.

Police also deployed personnel to sites alluded to in the posts. Around 70 police officers were deployed to Ori and Seohyeon stations, while some 600 police officers were dispatched to nearby facilities with high floating populations such as department stores.

Such murder threat posts have popped up online since Thursday after the Bundang stabbing rampage, where at least 14 people were injured.

Five of them were wounded after the 22-year-old suspect, identified by his surname Choi, drove a car onto a sidewalk near Seohyeon Station at around 5:59 pm. Thursday.

The suspect then headed into a shopping mall and wielded a knife, injuring nine. Police nabbed the suspect at around 6:05 p.m. at the site. Two of the injured victims are in serious condition, at risk of being brain dead.

The latest knife attack came two weeks after a 33-year-old man, Jo Seon, attacked passersby with a knife near Sillim Station in Gwanak District, southern Seoul, on July 21. One of the victims died from his severe injuries.

On Friday, police apprehended a man in his 20s at Seoul Express Bus Terminal in southern Seoul upon reports that he was carrying a weapon.

Police confiscated two knives from the man. No casualties were reported as the man did not wield the knives.

BY CHO JUNG-WOO [cho.jungwoo1@joongang.co.kr]