3 killed in knife assault after practice station smoke bombed in Taiwan, suspect plunges to his dying from division retailer

A person with a knife and a smoke grenade attacked crowds indiscriminately in Taiwan’s capital on Friday night, killing no less than three individuals and injuring 9 others, in accordance with the nationwide information company and the town authorities. The suspect later fell to his dying from a division retailer constructing.

Police mentioned the suspect was declared useless at a hospital after leaping from the constructing’s sixth flooring, the Central Information Company reported.

The suspect, recognized as a 27-year-old man named Chang Wen, threw a smoke grenade close to an underground exit of the Taipei Primary subway station, near the town’s fundamental practice station, sending pedestrians working, in accordance with native media studies.

He then headed north to a preferred purchasing district, the place he stabbed a number of individuals on the primary and fourth flooring of the Eslite division retailer, primarily within the neck, the information company mentioned, citing police.

Friday’s assault occurred through the metropolis’s night rush hour, BBC Information reported, and movies shared on social media present individuals fleeing the scene in panic.

Native hospitals reported three deaths from the assaults. The town authorities mentioned 9 others have been hospitalized, together with one with critical accidents.

Taiwanese Premier Cho Jung-tai mentioned one of many wounded was a pedestrian who fell to the bottom after being attacked, and that particular person was already in cardiac arrest earlier than being despatched to a hospital. The smoke prompted respiratory accidents to a different particular person.

Cho mentioned he had ordered elevated safety at metro and railway stations, in addition to airports, in response to the assault, BBC Information reported.

“We’ll ‌examine [the suspect’s] background and related relationships to grasp his motives and ‍decide ‌if there are different linked elements,” Cho was quoted by the Reuters information company as saying. 

Chang did not report for reserve army coaching in November 2024, and he was wished for violating the legislation on obligatory army service, the information company reported. He apparently did not report a change in family registration, leading to nondelivery of his reserve army service summons, the information company reported, citing a district prosecutors’ workplace.

The final main incident of this type occurred in 2014, BBC Information reported, when a person killed 4 individuals on an underground practice in Taipei. The perpetrator of that assault was executed two years later.