Man in his 20s attacks two men in their 60s with garden trowel

A man in his 20s was arrested for attacking two men in their 60s with a garden trowel at an apartment in Seoul, police said Monday.

The assault occurred around 7:40 p.m. Sunday in the lobby of an apartment building in Seokgwan-dong, Seongbuk-gu, Seoul, where the suspect allegedly attacked two older residents immediately after stepping out of an elevator, according to the Seongbuk Police Station.

The victims, who suffered head and other injuries, were taken to a hospital, where they were later reported to be in stable condition.

The suspect and the victims were strangers, suggesting the possibility of an unprovoked assault, a police official said.

Police have taken the assailant into custody and are investigating the details of the attack, including where he obtained the trowel and his motive.

The latest attack follows a recent series of unprovoked assaults that have raised public concern.

In March, Lee Ji-hyun, 34, fatally stabbed a woman in her 40s whom he had never met while walking along a street in Seocheon, South Chungcheong Province. He was sentenced to life in prison in the first trial held on July 22.

Investigators said he committed the crime under extreme stress after losing money in a failed stock investment.

A month later, at a supermarket in Mia-dong, Seoul, Kim Sung-jin, 33, killed a woman in her 60s, also a stranger, by stabbing her with a knife that was on display in the store.

Meanwhile, a man in his 30s is under investigation on assault charges after he kicked a woman he did not know on a street in Gangnam-gu, Seoul, last month and fled, according to Suseo Police Station.

He reportedly told police he attacked her simply because he was “in a bad mood."

In the past two years, there have been 88 recorded cases of attacks with no apparent motive, with 46 in 2023 and 42 last year, according to the National Police Agency.

Lee Yoon-ho, a professor of police administration at Dongguk University, described such irrationally motivated crimes as “hate crimes” that express anger toward society at large rather than toward specific individuals.

“They instill fear in the public and create multiple victims, so heavier penalties should be imposed to prevent recurrence,” he said.