Family video stops stabbing in South Korea

TAIPEI, Aug. 2 (CNA) A video of a father and his two sons intervening to stop a stabbing on a street in Taitung last month has drawn praise in South Korea after it appeared in local media.

Footage of the July 9 incident has been aired in recent weeks on South Korea’s Cultural Broadcasting Corporation (MBC) and Seoul Broadcasting System (SBS), among others, and a video on the latter’s YouTube page has garnered more than 3.6 million views.

Of the more than 7,000 comments on the video, many viewers praised the two men for their brave and selfless act on behalf of a stranger.

It’s not clear why the video gained traction in South Korea, but it’s particularly timely given that a similar stabbing attack occurred outside a Seoul subway station on July 21, leaving one person dead and three others injured.

The youngest son of the He family involved in the case told Taiwan’s China Times last month that he saw the 50-year-old male assailant sneak up behind the victim, a 26-year-old woman, in a crosswalk and lunge at her with a utility knife.

He said that at that moment, his father stopped the car he was in, honked his horn, and yelled at his two sons to get out and help the woman.

As the two sons got out of the car, the older brother picked up a large soup ladle from inside the car, which he later put down to buy a fan at a nearby binlang shop.

The younger brother grabbed the victim’s suitcase, the father picked up a discarded ladle, and the three began to surround the attacker with makeshift weapons, the video shows.

After a three- to four-minute confrontation, a fourth man called for help, and his father, Xu Shiguang, was able to use a ladle to wrestle the knife out of the attacker’s hand, knocking him to the ground and restraining him until police arrived.

In an interview, Xu Shiguang said the ladle was filled with leftovers the family had taken home from church.

The sushi fanatic joked that he believes it was “God’s will” that his wife insisted he bring home a ladle, and that as a weapon, a large metal spoon is definitely in his “top 10.”

Mr. Xu and his two sons, who have worked as drivers at the bureau’s Taitung field office for 27 years, received an official commendation from Wang Chunli, director of the bureau, on July 13 for their service.

The victim has since been treated for non-life-threatening injuries, and the suspect, Zhang, is in custody on suspicion of wounding and attempted murder.