Seoul, South Korea — Authorities are investigating a serious incident at an elementary school in Daejeon, South Korea, involving a teacher and a young student.

A teacher stabbed an eight-year-old student to death at an elementary school in South Korea on Monday, local media reported, citing authorities.

The teacher, a woman in her 40s, confessed to the crime after police officers found her and the young girl with stab wounds at the elementary school in the central city of Daejeon on Monday evening, the Yonhap news agency reported.

The girl was brought to hospital "in an unconscious state, but she later died", the report read.

The teacher had stab wounds on her neck and arm, which officials determined may have been self-inflicted, according to the news agency.

"Police found that the teacher had taken a leave of absence due to depression and returned to the school late last year," the report said.

The student was at the school for after-class child care before she was due to attend a private art class.

The teacher and the girl were found by police at around 6:00 pm (0900 GMT) after the child's parents reported her missing from the art class.

The teacher underwent surgery for her wounds, and police said they would resume questioning her later, Yonhap reported.

South Korea is generally a very safe country, with a murder rate of 1.3 per 100,000 people in 2021, according to official statistics -- below the global average of six homicide deaths per 100,000 people.

The country witnessed a string of high-profile violent crime incidents in 2023, however, including several stabbings.

In August of that year, a high school teacher was reportedly attacked with a knife, also in Daejeon, around 140 kilometres (87 miles) south of the capital Seoul.

In the same week, an attacker drove a car into a pedestrian walkway in the city of Bundang, near Seoul, before attacking people at a department store with a knife.

And in July 2023, a person was killed and three wounded in another stabbing in Seoul.