Police officers from precincts in Taipei and New Taipei City are to be permanently deployed at each of the Taipei MRT commuter rail system’s 109 stations to ensure “freedom from fear” as the nation continues to reel following Wednesday’s brutal knife attack that left four dead and 24 injured.
Taipei Mayor Hau Lung-bin (郝龍斌) announced the new policy on Friday, adding that the two cities are cooperating closely.
However, Hau did not specify when the new policy will go into effect.
Photo: Lo Pei-der, Taipei Times
His comments were a response to questions over the incident at the Taipei City Council.
Taipei City Councilor Ho Chih-wei (何志偉) said the Taipei Rapid Transit Corp (TRTC, 台北捷運公司), which operates the MRT, should make public the audio and video recordings from the incident so that city councilors can put questions to the municipal government based on all the facts.
TRTC president Tan Gwa-guang (譚國光) said that since the case is still under investigation, the recordings can be provided only with consent from judicial authorities.
The driver of the train, in which 21-year-old college student Cheng Chieh (鄭捷) allegedly went on a killing spree with a fruit knife on Wednesday, and the chief of Jiangzicui Station, where Cheng was apprehended, have been taken off duty for three days and could not be reached.
The Legislative Yuan on Friday released a joint statement signed by all political parties calling for the National Police Agency to thoroughly re-examine and increase police deployment on metro systems, railways and airports.
Meanwhile, police yesterday said the 110 police emergency service line and the 119 fire emergency telephone line have received increased numbers of calls over the past couple of days from members of the public reporting people and online messages that they considered to be suspicious.
In one case, a 26-year-old man surnamed Lin (林) in Taoyuan was arrested yesterday on charges of terrifying the public after a netizen reported that he posted on Facebook on Thursday: “My turn to kill people, at Kaohsiung MRT after I get discharged from hospital tomorrow.”
Lin, who was hospitalized due to a car accident, worked at a retail store in Taoyuan’s Jhongli City (中壢). He was quoted by police as saying that he did not really mean to kill people, but that he just wanted to draw attention to his page, adding that he deleted the post five minutes after realizing someone had reposted it.
Additional reporting by Chou Min-hung
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
RESTAURANT POISONING? Deputy Minister of Health and Welfare Victor Wang at a press conference last night said this was the first time bongkrekic acid was detected in Taiwan An autopsy discovered bongkrekic acid in a specimen collected from a person who died from food poisoning after dining at the Malaysian restaurant chain Polam Kopitiam, the Ministry of Health and Welfare said at a news conference last night. It was the first time bongkrekic acid was detected in Taiwan, Deputy Minister of Health and Welfare Victor Wang (王必勝) said. The testing conducted by forensic specialists at National Taiwan University was facilitated after a hospital voluntarily offered standard samples it had in stock that are required to test for bongkrekic acid, he said. Wang told the news conference that testing would continue despite
‘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)