Four instructors affiliated with Iowa’s Cornell College were injured in “a serious incident” while at a park in China, the college said on Monday.
The instructors were in China teaching as part of a partnership program with a local university and were injured during a daytime visit to a public park, Jonathan Brand, the college’s president, said in a statement. The instructors had been accompanied by a faculty member of the college’s partner institution in China at the time of the attack, Brand added. No students from the small liberal arts college in Mount Vernon, Iowa, were taking part in the program at the time.
A U.S. State Department spokesperson told CBS News that the department is aware of “reports of a stabbing incident in Jilin,” which is in northeast China, though the spokesperson did not provide further details.
Rep. Ashley Hinson of Iowa characterized the attack as a stabbing, writing on social media: “Horrified that multiple Cornell College faculty members were brutally stabbed in China. My team has been in communication with Cornell College & will do everything in our power to bring these Iowans home safely.
Iowa’s Rep. Mariannette Miller-Meeks said her office was in touch with the U.S. Embassy in China to ensure the victims of the attack receive quality care and are safely brought home.
Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds said she was in touch with the state’s federal delegation as well as the State Department. “Please pray for their full recovery, safe return, and their families here at home,” Reynolds wrote on social media.
