Knife attack in Taipei leaves 3 dead, 9 hurt; suspect falls to death

International

TERROR erupted in Taipei Friday evening as a knife-wielding attacker set off smoke bombs and went on a stabbing spree across the city’s busy metro stations, leaving three dead and nine injured.

The 27-year-old suspect, identified by authorities as Chang Wen, set off smoke bombs at Taipei Main Station before moving through a crowded shopping district, stabbing multiple people along the way, Taiwanese Premier Cho Jung-tai said.

He later died after falling from a multi-storey building, although the motive for the attack remains unknown.

Friday’s violence unfolded around 17:20 local time (09:20 GMT), during the city’s evening rush hour.

Social media videos captured scenes of chaos, showing people fleeing as a man in a baseball cap and black clothing threw smoke bombs across a busy road. The footage also shows him carrying a large knife while walking past cars.

Premier Cho said in a BBC report that the attacker detonated both smoke bombs and Molotov cocktails at Taipei Main Station, which connects to a bustling underground shopping street.

A man who attempted to stop him was struck with a blunt object and later died in hospital.

The suspect then fled on foot through an underground shopping center to Zhongshan Station, roughly 800 meters away. After briefly returning to his hotel to retrieve another weapon, he went back outside Zhongshan Station, setting off more smoke bombs and stabbing additional victims.

The rampage continued into a nearby bookshop and department store. Police eventually surrounded the suspect, who fell from the building and died shortly after in hospital.

In response, Cho announced heightened security measures at metro and railway stations, as well as airports.

“We will ‌ investigate [the suspect’s] background and associated relationships to understand his motives and ‌determine ‌if there are other connected factors,” he said, according to Reuters.

Taiwanese President William Lai also pledged a swift and thorough investigation. Local media reports indicate the suspect had a prior criminal record and was wanted by authorities.

Incidents of this nature are uncommon in Taiwan, which has relatively low violent crime rates. The last comparable attack in Taipei occurred in 2014, when a man killed four people on an underground train, shocking the nation. That perpetrator was executed two years later.(MyTVCebu)