Four American university professors working in China were stabbed in a public park. The Chinese Foreign Ministry said, according to AFP, that it was an attack that it described as an "isolated" incident.

According to Cornell College, in the state of Iowa, the four professors are educators at their institution and were in China participating in an academic exchange program.

Meanwhile, the State Department stated that it is closely monitoring the situation and maintained that it was a knife attack in Jilin, a city in northeastern China.

China's Foreign Ministry confirmed on Tuesday that "four foreign professors were attacked while walking in Beishan Park in Jilin," its spokesman Lin Jian said at a press conference reported by AFP.

"Preliminarily investigations by the police considered the case to be an isolated. Further investigations are underway," he said.