Four educators from Cornell College in Mount Vernon, Iowa, were stabbed in central China after police said one of them bumped into a 55-year-old man in a park.
A suspect, identified as Cui Moumou, “collided with a foreigner while walking in Beishan Park, and then stabbed the foreigner and three other foreigners with him, as well as a Chinese tourist who stepped forward to stop him from committing the crime,” police in Jilin City said in a statement.
The instructors were in Jilin City to lecture at Beihua University in the Jilin Province 600 miles northeast of Beijing. The schools established an academic partnership in 2018.
A Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson confirmed none of those injured are in critical condition, according to the Associated Press.
Officials have not identified the victims, but Iowa Rep. Adam Zabner said his brother David Zabner was “wounded in the arm” during the attack and is doing well.
The stabbing happened Monday, which was a holiday in China. Police said the suspect is in custody.
Cornell College — not to be confused with Cornell University in Ithaca, N.Y. — describes itself as a private liberal arts school of roughly 1,100 students.
Beihua is a state-owned public university that welcomes foreign students.
