An elderly man unsatisfied with the capital city's development policy stabbed himself while Seoul Mayor Park Won-soon was delivering a congratulatory speech at an opening of an exhibition at the city hall Friday, municipal officials and witnesses said.
The 79-year old man, identified only by his last name Lee, approached Mayor Park with a weapon at around 10 a.m. and stabbed himself in the abdomen, after shouting "Can you say you are a mayor?" and "I need to die," according to the witnesses. He was drunk when the incident took place.
Lee was rushed to a nearby hospital and is in stable condition.
He reportedly had conflicts with a district office after the city government decided not to carry out a development project. The amount of compensation suggested by the district office fell short of what was asked by a development committee headed by Lee.
Mayor Park was speaking at the opening ceremony of an exhibition on Frank W. Schofield, a veterinary scientist who contributed to Korea's independence from Japan's colonial rule between 1910-45.
Police said they are investigating the details of the incident. (Yonhap)