Four lecturers from Cornell University in Iowa were injured in a “serious accident” at a park in China, the university said Monday.
The instructors were teaching in China as part of a partnership program with a local university and were wounded during a daytime visit to the park, university president Jonathan Brand said in a statement. The instructors were accompanying faculty from the university’s partner school in China at the time of the attack, Brand added. No students at the small liberal arts college in Mount Vernon, Iowa, were participating in the program at the time.
A State Department spokesman told CBS News the US was aware of “reports of a stabbing incident in Jilin province” in northeast China, but did not provide further details.
Iowa Rep. Ashley Hinson characterized the attack as a stabbing and posted on social media: “I am horrified that multiple Cornell faculty members were brutally stabbed in China. My team has been in contact with Cornell University and will do everything in our power to bring Iowans home safely.”
Rep. Mariannette Miller-Meeks of Iowa said her office was in contact with the U.S. embassy in China to ensure victims of the attack receive quality care and are able to return home safely.
Iowa Governor Kim Reynolds said she was in contact with the state’s federal delegation and the State Department. “Please pray for their full recovery and safe return and for their families back home,” she wrote on social media.
