Two Taiwanese, including a three-year-old boy, were yesterday reported killed following the devastating earthquake in southwest China. At press time last night, 14 Taiwanese tourists remained unreachable by phone.
Tourist Wang Min-chuan (王民權), 56, plummeted to the ground on Tuesday as he was being rescued from a cable car that had been stranded mid-air over Dujiangyan, Sichuan Province, after the quake struck on Monday, an official at the Straits Exchange Foundation said.
Wang was sent to a nearby hospital, where he died at 11:40pm on Tuesday.
Ten other people who had also been trapped in the 50m-high cable car system were brought to safety.
China’s state media reported that a three-year-old Taiwanese boy had been killed, while two other Taiwanese were slightly injured.
About 2,800 Taiwanese tourists in 100 tour groups were in Sichuan Province to visit the Yangtze River, the Wolong Panda Reserve and the scenic Jiuzhaigou Valley when the quake hit Wenchuan County.
The 14 tourists that remained missing yesterday are from Hsichou Township (溪州) in Changhua County.
Golden Hyatt (凱越旅行社) travel agency said yesterday it had finally reached 32 of its clients who had been scheduled to travel to Jiuzhaigou on Monday.
The agency’s assistant manager Laku Lo (駱簡豪) told the Taipei Times that it had reached the tour guide, Wu Tai-kuang (吳台光), at around 10am yesterday.
Wu told the agency that all the tourists in his group had been taken in by a village of Tibetan people and that all of them were safe.
He told the agency that another Taiwanese tour group, organized by EZ Travel (易遊網), was staying in the same village.
Wu said he had traveled about an hour to find a location with better mobile phone reception.
He said that although there was no problem with food supplies, one of the tourists is diabetic and had just enough medication for nine days.
Lo said the tourists would leave the village this morning and head to the Jiuzhaigou-Huanglong Airport.
“We hope to secure the flight seats immediately so that our guests can fly to the airport in Chengdu this afternoon,” Lo said, adding that their customers would stay in the hotel in Chengdu today until they get connecting flights to Hong Kong or Macau.
ADDITIONAL REPORTING BY AFP AND DPA
The US government has signed defense cooperation agreements with Japan and the Philippines to boost the deterrence capabilities of countries in the first island chain, a report by the National Security Bureau (NSB) showed. The main countries on the first island chain include the two nations and Taiwan. The bureau is to present the report at a meeting of the legislature’s Foreign Affairs and National Defense Committee tomorrow. The US military has deployed Typhon missile systems to Japan’s Yamaguchi Prefecture and Zambales province in the Philippines during their joint military exercises. It has also installed NMESIS anti-ship systems in Japan’s Okinawa
TRAGEDY STRIKES TAIPEI: The suspect died after falling off a building after he threw smoke grenades into Taipei Main Station and went on a killing spree in Zhongshan A 27-year-old suspect allegedly threw smoke grenades in Taipei Main Station and then proceeded to Zhongshan MRT Station in a random killing spree that resulted in the death of the suspect and two other civilians, and seven injured, including one in critical condition, as of press time last night. The suspect, identified as a man surnamed Chang Wen (張文), allegedly began the attack at Taipei Main Station, the Taipei Fire Department said, adding that it received a report at 5:24pm that smoke grenades had been thrown in the station. One man in his 50s was rushed to hospital after a cardiac arrest
‘WIN-WIN’: The Philippines, and central and eastern European countries are important potential drone cooperation partners, Minister of Foreign Affairs Lin Chia-lung said Minister of Foreign Affairs Lin Chia-lung (林佳龍) in an interview published yesterday confirmed that there are joint ventures between Taiwan and Poland in the drone industry. Lin made the remark in an exclusive interview with the Chinese-language Liberty Times (the Taipei Times’ sister paper). The government-backed Taiwan Excellence Drone International Business Opportunities Alliance and the Polish Chamber of Unmanned Systems on Wednesday last week signed a memorandum of understanding in Poland to develop a “non-China” supply chain for drones and work together on key technologies. Asked if Taiwan prioritized Poland among central and eastern European countries in drone collaboration, Lin
ON ALERT: Taiwan’s partners would issue warnings if China attempted to use Interpol to target Taiwanese, and the global body has mechanisms to prevent it, an official said China has stationed two to four people specializing in Taiwan affairs at its embassies in several democratic countries to monitor and harass Taiwanese, actions that the host nations would not tolerate, National Security Bureau (NSB) Director-General Tsai Ming-yen (蔡明彥) said yesterday. Tsai made the comments at a meeting of the legislature’s Foreign Affairs and National Defense Committee, which asked him and Minister of National Defense Wellington Koo (顧立雄) to report on potential conflicts in the Taiwan Strait and military preparedness. Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Legislator Michelle Lin (林楚茵) expressed concern that Beijing has posted personnel from China’s Taiwan Affairs Office to its
RSS