At least four people killed in mass stabbing in Taipei | Taiwan
At least four people have died in a rare mass stabbing in central Taipei after an attacker used a smoke grenade to create chaos in a violent attack in Taiwan’s capital. Many people were also injured.
The suspected attacker is among those killed after falling from a building during a police pursuit in a busy shopping area on Friday evening.
One of the victims was killed while trying to stop the attack at Taipei Main station, according to the city’s mayor, Chiang Wan-an.
The suspected attacker was announced as a 27-year-old man from Taoyuan, a northern county in Taiwan. He was reportedly an air force volunteer who served on a radio communications team near Taipei’s Songshan airport but was discharged in 2022.
Taiwanese premier Cho Jung-tai told reporters that the suspected attacker had a prior criminal record and outstanding arrest warrants. Local media reported that he was wanted by the local prosecutor’s office for obstructing military service in 2024 due to his absence from duty.
Cho described the incident as a “deliberate attack”, but the motive was unknown until late Friday night.
Taiwan President Lai Ching-te said in his statement that security would be increased across the country and there would be “no tolerance”.
The attack began at Taipei Main station on Friday afternoon. The attacker allegedly threw smoke bombs inside the station during rush hour before heading towards nearby Zhongshan.
A video shot by an eyewitness showed the young man in the middle of the main road outside Zhongshan subway station, a popular late-night and shopping area. He was wearing a black T-shirt and shorts, sneakers, a mask and some protective equipment.
He also appeared to have other weapons, including at least one other knife strapped to his chest.
In the video, he is seen pulling smoke bombs from a bag on the ground and throwing them towards the crowd gathered on the sidewalk, keeping his distance. He is then seen running along the road and entering a shopping centre, attacking random people with a long knife as he runs.
Another video shows him pulling smoke bombs from a rolling bag and calmly throwing them at what appears to be Taipei Main Station. Other footage shows one of the subway stations filling with smoke and people being evacuated from the buildings.
“The scene was horrible and it smelled awful,” said one resident, who shared his videos on social media.
Two men working at a nearby fast food chain told local media they heard screams outside and could smell smoke. One of them said people ran into the restaurant and asked if they could hide inside, and they all took shelter behind the cashier.
Violent crime is relatively rare in Taiwan, but a series of stabbing attacks on the subway in the past few years have raised fears. Some trains now have instructional videos on how people can neutralize attackers with umbrellas and fire extinguishers.
In 2014, a university student killed four people and injured more than 20 people in a stabbing attack in the Taipei subway. The student was executed for the murders in 2016. Last year, on the 10th anniversary of the 2014 incident, three people were injured in a mass stabbing in Taichung, Taiwan’s second largest city.
Photos published in local media revealed a burnt bag full of unused Molotov cocktails. The smoke bombs pictured are replicas of US military equipment and were advertised for sale online in Taiwan, but when the Guardian checked after the attack they were not available on the website. An affiliated store on a separate shopping platform was closed Friday night.
One of the leading sellers of the equipment told the Guardian that they had checked sales records after the incident and were not aware of any high volume or unusual sales that would suggest the attacker had bought the grenades from them. They said the items were “intended for lawful uses such as outdoor recreation, training or signaling and are not intended for violent purposes.”
Additional research by Lillian Yang
