A 27-year-old man has been arrested for stabbing a 40-year-old woman in the thigh who was on her way home in Yeongdeungpo, southern Seoul.

Police said that they caught Lee hiding in his room on the rooftop at 2:30 a.m. Friday, about 30 minutes after searching the residential area in Singil-dong, based on blood from his arm which was cut while he was yielding a knife and tips from witnesses.

The injured, surnamed Jang, is in serious condition although she was taken to a nearby hospital immediately following calls to the emergency services. Jang, a Korean-Chinese who came to Korea in August last year, was on her way home after talking with family members at a relative’s house.

“I committed the crime upon spotting Jang when I went out of my home with the thought that I wanted to kill someone after drinking a bottle of soju at home,” Lee was quoted as saying. At that time, he returned home from his job at a convenience store.

Lee seemed to commit such a hate crime as he was in the verge of breaking up with his girlfriend due to a huge amount of debt, a police officer said, adding that he owed 12 million won to a secondary banking institution.