Police arrest a man after 9 people are stabbed over a day-and-a-half in Seattle

SEATTLE — A man has been arrested in connection with a spate of random stabbings over two days in Seattle, in which nine people were injured — five of them on Friday afternoon, police said.

“This incident was apparently one individual over a 38-hour period of time committing random assaults,” Deputy Chief Eric Barden said at the scene Friday.

The stabbings on Friday afternoon took place in a roughly four-block area in Seattle’s Chinatown-International District.

Witnesses reported a description of the suspect and officers found him nearby and took him into custody without incident, police said. A weapon was found near the person who was arrested, and a knife was lodged in one of the victims, police said.

Four of the victims were taken to Harborview Medical Center in Seattle and one victim was treated at the scene and released.

A Harborview spokesperson confirmed four victims were at the hospital and said all were in critical condition.

Five other people were stabbed in separate incidents in the same area starting early Thursday.

“It is my understanding that everyone is alive,” Barden said of the victims.

Police said the 10th stabbing involved a robbery and it was not clear that it was connected to the random attacks.