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Four faculty members from an Iowa university were reportedly involved in a stabbing incident at a park in the northeastern US on Monday while visiting a partner university in China.
Lecturers from Cornell University in Mount Vernon, Iowa, were injured in a stabbing attack by an unknown assailant while visiting a park in northern China’s Jilin province, the university said.
The four were with faculty members from partner school Beihua University and were injured in a “serious accident,” the school’s president, Jonathan Brand, said in a statement to university officials.
“We have been in contact with all four instructors and are supporting them during this time,” Brand said.
He said the US State Department was aware of the incident and was monitoring the situation. The school said no students from the US were taking part in the exchange program.
Chinese authorities have yet to respond to the incident and images of the injured people shared on social media have been censored on the Chinese internet, the BBC reported.
“My team has been in contact with Cornell University and will do everything in our power to bring Iowans home safely,” Iowa Representative Ashley Hinson said in a post on X.
“Please join me in praying for their health and safety.”
Iowa Governor Kim Reynolds said, “I have been in contact with Iowa’s federal delegation and the Department of State following this horrific attack. I ask for your prayers for the victim’s full recovery and safe return, and for the safety of his family back home.”
Iowa Sen. Joni Ernst also said her team is “closely monitoring reports that a Cornell University staff member at Mount Vernon was stabbed in China.”
“We are in contact with the university and the State Department and stand ready to provide further assistance to Iowans. We wish everyone a speedy recovery,” she said on X.
Iowa Rep. Adam Zubner’s brother, David, was among those injured in the stabbing, according to CBS News.
He told the outlet that his younger brother was stabbed in the arm at Kitayama Park and was recovering in hospital. “My brother has not been released from the hospital yet this morning, but he is doing well,” he said.
It is also unclear whether instructors were specifically targeted.
The partnership between Cornell and Beihua University began in 2018. According to a news release from that year, Beihua University subsidizes travel expenses for Cornell professors to China, where they spend two weeks teaching computer science, mathematics and physics.
