The man who used his martial arts skills to subdue an alleged attacker at the Taipei mass rapid transit (MRT) system’s Jiangzicui Station (江子翠), 62-year-old Chen Feng (陳風), said the killing spree that happened on Wednesday afternoon at first seemed like the plot of a movie.
“I saw a person lying on the ground and thought somebody was making a movie, but then I thought: ‘Wait, this is an MRT station, you can’t make a movie here,’” Chen said.
Chen was on the train heading to Ximending (西門町) when he heard two women shout: “Help! Help! Someone is killing people!” from the opposite side of the platform.
Photo: Chiang Hsiang, Taipei Times
He jumped off the train and realized right away that it was not a movie after all: A woman was lying bleeding on the platform and about seven or eight people were trying to corral the alleged perpetrator, Cheng Chieh (鄭捷).
“People scattered and ran away as fast as they could. All I thought was that I cannot let him [Cheng] get away with this, otherwise more people would get hurt,” Chen said.
Chen said he went to confront Cheng. When Cheng tried to attack him, Chen used the martial arts moves that he learned in high school to force Cheng to let go of his knife and threw him over his shoulder. Fearing that the suspect might flee, Chen quickly put the suspect’s head in an arm lock until police arrived and arrested him.
However, Chen was injured in the fight and has a slightly swollen forehead and light pains in the chest.
“Of course I was scared,” Chen said.
“I am 62 and he is 21. I am 1.75m tall, and he is about 1.8m. I had to engage in hand-to-hand combat with someone taller than me. However, I thought I am already 62 years old. Since other people were fighting him with umbrellas, I thought I might as well fight him with my life,” he added.
Apart from learning martial arts in high school, Chen said that he also learned taekwondo while in the military.
“I am not a hero. I just did something that any Taiwanese would do,” he said.
The government is aiming to recruit 1,096 foreign English teachers and teaching assistants this year, the Ministry of Education said yesterday. The foreign teachers would work closely with elementary and junior-high instructors to create and teach courses, ministry official Tsai Yi-ching (蔡宜靜) said. Together, they would create an immersive language environment, helping to motivate students while enhancing the skills of local teachers, she said. The ministry has since 2021 been recruiting foreign teachers through the Taiwan Foreign English Teacher Program, which offers placement, salary, housing and other benefits to eligible foreign teachers. Two centers serving northern and southern Taiwan assist in recruiting and training
WIDE NET: Health officials said they are considering all possibilities, such as bongkrekic acid, while the city mayor said they have not ruled out the possibility of a malicious act of poisoning Two people who dined at a restaurant in Taipei’s Far Eastern Department Store Xinyi A13 last week have died, while four are in intensive care, the Taipei Department of Health said yesterday. All of the outlets of Malaysian vegetarian restaurant franchise Polam Kopitiam have been ordered to close pending an investigation after 11 people became ill due to suspected food poisoning, city officials told a news conference in Taipei. The first fatality, a 39-year-old man who ate at the restaurant on Friday last week, died of kidney failure two days later at the city’s Mackay Memorial Hospital. A 66-year-old man who dined
EYE ON STRAIT: The US spending bill ‘doubles security cooperation funding for Taiwan,’ while also seeking to counter the influence of China US President Joe Biden on Saturday signed into law a US$1.2 trillion spending package that includes US$300 million in foreign military financing to Taiwan, as well as funding for Taipei-Washington cooperative projects. The US Congress early on Saturday overwhelmingly passed the Further Consolidated Appropriations Act 2024 to avoid a partial shutdown and fund the government through September for a fiscal year that began six months ago. Under the package, the Defense Appropriations Act would provide a US$27 billion increase from the previous fiscal year to fund “critical national defense efforts, including countering the PRC [People’s Republic of China],” according to a summary
‘CARRIER KILLERS’: The Tuo Chiang-class corvettes’ stealth capability means they have a radar cross-section as small as the size of a fishing boat, an analyst said President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) yesterday presided over a ceremony at Yilan County’s Suao Harbor (蘇澳港), where the navy took delivery of two indigenous Tuo Chiang-class corvettes. The corvettes, An Chiang (安江) and Wan Chiang (萬江), along with the introduction of the coast guard’s third and fourth 4,000-tonne cutters earlier this month, are a testament to Taiwan’s shipbuilding capability and signify the nation’s resolve to defend democracy and freedom, Tsai said. The vessels are also the last two of six Tuo Chiang-class corvettes ordered from Lungteh Shipbuilding Co (龍德造船) by the navy, Tsai said. The first Tuo Chiang-class vessel delivered was Ta Chiang (塔江)