South Korean teacher admits she fatally stabbed girl, police say

A teacher at a South Korean elementary school has admitted to stabbing a seven-year-old girl who was found in cardiac arrest and later died in hospital, a police official said on Tuesday.

The female teacher, who is being treated in hospital for self-inflicted wounds, has not yet been arrested, said the official, as police were investigating Monday's stabbing.

Acting President Choi Sang-mok offered condolences during a cabinet meeting over the child's death and ordered the education ministry and authorities to thoroughly investigate the incident at the school in the city of Daejeon.

The girl was a student at the school where the teacher worked, though police had not established a personal relationship between the two so far, according to the police official.

The girl was discovered by her grandmother, an official at the Daejeon metropolitan office of education said during a media briefing on Tuesday. She was found with stab wounds in the neck and face, a local fire department official told Reuters on Monday.

The female teacher had taken a leave of absence for medical reasons before prematurely returning to work late last year, the education office official told the briefing.

Reuters