4 Cornell College lecturers “injured in serious incident in China,” university says

Four lecturers from Cornell College in Iowa were injured in a “serious incident” in a park in China, the college said on Monday.

The instructors were teaching as part of a partnership program with a local university in China and were injured during a day trip to a public park, Jonathan Brand, the college’s president, said in a statement. The instructors were accompanied by a faculty member from 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 participating in the program at the time.

State Rep. Adam Zabner said his brother, David Zabner, who was traveling to China with Cornell for the second time, was one of the victims. According to Rep. Zabner, the group was visiting a local temple when they were attacked by a man with a knife. David Zabner, a graduate student at Tufts University who previously taught at Cornell, was stabbed in the arm and is currently recovering in the hospital, his brother said.

“He has not been released this morning, but he is doing well,” Rep. Zabner told CBS News.

A US State Department spokesman told CBS News that the department was aware of “reports of a knife attack in Jilin” in northeast China. The spokesman did not provide further details.

Representative Ashley Hinson of Iowa also described the attack as a stabbing and wrote on social media: “I am appalled to hear that several Cornell College faculty members were brutally stabbed in China. My team is in contact with Cornell College and will do everything in our power to bring these Iowans home safely.”

Iowa Rep. Mariannette Miller-Meeks said her office was in contact with the U.S. Embassy in China to ensure that victims of the attack received appropriate care and were brought home safely.

Iowa Governor Kim Reynolds said she was in contact with the state’s federal delegation as well as the State Department. “Please pray for their full recovery, their safe return, and for their families here at home,” Reynolds wrote on social media.