Four U.S. college professors stabbed in China

All four professors were rushed to a hospital, and none were in critical condition, China’s Foreign Ministry spokesman Lin Jian told reporters on Tuesday. The American professors were attacked on Monday in the northeast city of Jilin while visiting a local park. A Chinese tourist was also stabbed while coming to the group’s defense, according to a translation of a police statement on social media. The professors are on loan from Iowa’s Cornell College to teach at Beihua University, a provincial institution.

Is the suspect still at large? A local Chinese man named Cui Moumou, 55, was arrested, according to the police statement. Police said he had collided with one of the victims before stabbing the four people in the group and also the Chinese man who tried to intervene. Authorities are still investigating the attack but believe it is an isolated incident, Lin said. China is considered one of the safest countries in the world, with effective safety measures to protect visiting foreign nationals, he insisted. Lin added that this isolated attack will not affect people-to-people exchanges between China and the United States.

How is Cornell College responding to the incident? The school confirmed that the four instructors were injured in a serious daytime incident while visiting a local park. Cornell has been in contact with the instructors and is working to assist them, Cornell President Jonathan Brand said in a statement to WORLD.

Dig deeper: Read Josh Schumacher’s report on a Hong Kong court convicting pro-democracy activists earlier this year.