Four instructors from Cornell College in Iowa were attacked during a teaching trip in China, according to the Chinese Foreign Ministry.
The American educators, who were teaching at Beihua University in the northeastern city of Jilin, were attacked in a park, the ministry said.
The State Department did not immediately respond to a request for comment, but told the Associated Press it was aware of reports of a stabbing and was monitoring the situation.
“We learned that on the morning of June 10, four foreign teachers from Beihua University … were attacked when touring the city’s Beishan Park,” Foreign Ministry spokesman Lin Jian told reporters Tuesday. “All of the injured were rushed to hospital … none of them are in a critical condition.”
Chinese police believe the event to be an “isolated incident,” said Lin, adding that “cultural and people-to-people exchanges between China and the United States serve the common interests of both sides, and have been positively supported by various sectors of the two countries.”
“China is widely considered one of the safest countries in the world,” he said.
Cornell College President Jonathan Brand told the AP the instructors were attacked while with a faculty member from Beihua.
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Details on the four instructors’ identities and injuries have not been publicly released. Cornell College, a private college in Mount Vernon, Iowa, said it was still gathering information about the incident.
Mainstream news outlets in China did not appear to cover the news, but social media posts referencing “Jilin” and “Jilin Beishan Park” were among the top trending topics on the microblogging site Weibo on Tuesday and posts with the hashtag “Jilin Beishan Park” had over 4 million views.
Relations between Beijing and Washington remain strained, with tensions over trade and security in the Indo-Pacific.
Shibani Mahtani and Pei-Lin Wu contributed to this report.