“I planted a bomb at Yonsei University’s Severance Hospital. It will explode at night…”
Around 1:15 p.m. Monday, an intoxicated man phoned an official of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade and conveyed the above message to him. He did not give the exact timing and location, but about 150 military personnel and policemen rushed to the hospital. Members of the Armed Forces, as well as special police forces and bomb disposal unit members searched every part of the hospital.
Via an internal broadcasting network, the hospital informed patients and their families of what was happening, and cooperated with the authorities in searching for the allegedly hidden bomb.
Patients and their families, meanwhile, appeared to be carefree. After reading articles on the incident, some patients tweeted neighbors. After conducting a five-hour search, the military and police concluded that the area was safe.
Police tracked the phone number of the man who called the ministry official and apprehended the suspect at his home in Jangwi-dong, Seongbuk, Seoul. The suspect, 46, was identified only by his surname Yu. During interrogation, Yu was still intoxicated.
A police officer said Yu, who became upset after his Korean-Chinese wife ran away from home sometime ago, phoned the ministry. But Yu said he did not know why he phoned the ministry and named the Severance Hospital as where he had supposedly planted a bomb.