Teacher stabs 8-year-old girl to death at school in Daejeon

Police conduct an on-site inspection in the audio visual room on the second floor of an elementary school in Daejeon after a teacher in her 40s stabbed to death an eight-year-old girl on Feb. 10. [YONHAP]

A teacher in her 40s stabbed to death an eight-year-old girl at an elementary school in Daejeon on Monday.
 
Daejeon police found the first-grade student and teacher with stab wounds on the second floor of the elementary school building in Seo District at around 6 p.m.  
  
The student's parents earlier reported that the girl went missing following her after school class.
 
Police said that the girl was found unconscious and transferred to a nearby hospital. She was later pronounced dead.  
 
Her family said that the child had been severely covered with stab marks on one side of her body at the time of her discovery.  
 
The teacher was found nearby with stab wounds to the neck and arm and was reportedly conscious.  
 
Police said the teacher admitted to crime at around 9 p.m. and opened an investigation naming her as the main suspect.  
 

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According to police, the teacher appears to have inflicted the knife injuries on herself after stabbing the child and that there is currently no danger to her life. The teacher underwent surgery for her wounds.  
 
Police said that the suspect had been a full-time teacher who taken a leave of absence due to depression. She returned to teaching late last year. The teacher reportedly didn't have any known relationship with the child.  
 

Police stand guard at an elementary school in Daejeon after a teacher stabbed an first-grade student on Feb. 10. [NEWS1]

 
The girl had attended the after school class, in which the school provides child care services for students after regular classes end, before she had been scheduled to go to an art class at a hagwon, or private academy, at 4:40 p.m.
 
Her parent was notified by the private art academy that the student hadn't showed up and reported the child as missing at around 5:18 p.m.  
 
Her school also reported to police at 5:50 p.m. that someone was trapped in the school's audio visual room on the second floor of the building.
 
Police were dispatched to the school and found two people on the floor of the audio visual room.
 
Police said they plan to investigate the teacher's exact motivations and the circumstances of the crime once she recovers from her surgery.  
 
The elementary school will be closed on Tuesday, Daejeon education authorities said.    
 

BY SARAH KIM [kim.sarah@joongang.co.kr]