News of another act of heroism during the Taipei Mass Rapid Transit (MRT) system stabbing spree last week emerged yesterday, as a woman told of how she used her handbag as both a weapon and a shield to protect herself and other passengers.
The woman, identified as 37-year-old Tsai Yueh-yin (蔡月銀), said she swung her purse, which was filled with books, at the 21-year-old suspect, Cheng Chieh (鄭捷), to fend him off as he approached her in an MRT car, stabbing people at random.
“I had library books in my bag, so acting on instinct, I immediately stood up and swung the bag at him,” Tsai, a survey assistant at New Taipei City’s Land Administration Department, told cable TV network Eastern Television (ETTV).
Photo: Lai Hsiao-tung, Taipei Times
The attacker tried to go after a mother sitting with her infant sitting next to Tsai, so Tsai said she tried to protect the pair.
“It was my maternal instinct. I pulled them behind me and swung my big bag at the suspect again,” the mother of two told ETTV.
The Chinese-language United Daily News reported that Tsai also tried to stop the suspect from attacking an elderly woman sitting near her and suffered a knife cut to one of her fingers.
Tsai said she hopes that people will stop making the survivors of the stabbing spree feel guilty, referring to a remark by a government official who said he did not understand why “no one” stood up to the suspect.
“We are not well-trained police or SWAT team members. We just wanted to stay alive for the people we love,” Tsai said.
Tsai was not the only passenger who demonstrated bravery during the incident on Wednesday last week that left four people dead and 23 injured.
A video clip filmed by one passenger showed some men standing in front of a group of passengers to defend them from the attacker.
One of the men, later identified as a 52-year-old businessman, wielded his umbrella like a sword during a standoff that lasted at least 40 seconds, until the train approached Jiangzicui Station.
The Chinese-language Apple Daily reported that the man downplayed his actions, citing him as saying that he was “not the only one” standing in front of the group of passengers.
Surveillance video also showed a some people trying to subdue the suspect on the station platform.
A 62-year-old man named Chen Feng (陳風), who has martial arts experience, was the first to subdue the suspect and hold him until the police arrived.
He said he did not dare tell his family about the incident, but knew he was “doing the right thing.”
A 36-year-old nurse who was waiting on the platform was also reported by local media to have rushed onto the train to help the wounded.
“It was an instinctive response. I didn’t think that much about it on the spur of the moment,” she said.
PREPAREDNESS: Given the difficulty of importing ammunition during wartime, the Ministry of National Defense said it would prioritize ‘coproduction’ partnerships A newly formed unit of the Marine Corps tasked with land-based security operations has recently replaced its aging, domestically produced rifles with more advanced, US-made M4A1 rifles, a source said yesterday. The unnamed source familiar with the matter said the First Security Battalion of the Marine Corps’ Air Defense and Base Guard Group has replaced its older T65K2 rifles, which have been in service since the late 1980s, with the newly received M4A1s. The source did not say exactly when the upgrade took place or how many M4A1s were issued to the battalion. The confirmation came after Chinese-language media reported
A Ministry of Foreign Affairs official yesterday said that a delegation that visited China for an APEC meeting did not receive any kind of treatment that downgraded Taiwan’s sovereignty. Department of International Organizations Director-General Jonathan Sun (孫儉元) said that he and a group of ministry officials visited Shenzhen, China, to attend the APEC Informal Senior Officials’ Meeting last month. The trip went “smoothly and safely” for all Taiwanese delegates, as the Chinese side arranged the trip in accordance with long-standing practices, Sun said at the ministry’s weekly briefing. The Taiwanese group did not encounter any political suppression, he said. Sun made the remarks when
The Taiwanese passport ranked 33rd in a global listing of passports by convenience this month, rising three places from last month’s ranking, but matching its position in January last year. The Henley Passport Index, an international ranking of passports by the number of designations its holder can travel to without a visa, showed that the Taiwan passport enables holders to travel to 139 countries and territories without a visa. Singapore’s passport was ranked the most powerful with visa-free access to 192 destinations out of 227, according to the index published on Tuesday by UK-based migration investment consultancy firm Henley and Partners. Japan’s and
BROAD AGREEMENT: The two are nearing a trade deal to reduce Taiwan’s tariff to 15% and a commitment for TSMC to build five more fabs, a ‘New York Times’ report said Taiwan and the US have reached a broad consensus on a trade deal, the Executive Yuan’s Office of Trade Negotiations said yesterday, after a report said that Washington is set to reduce Taiwan’s tariff rate to 15 percent. The New York Times on Monday reported that the two nations are nearing a trade deal to reduce Taiwan’s tariff rate to 15 percent and commit Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) to building at least five more facilities in the US. “The agreement, which has been under negotiation for months, is being legally scrubbed and could be announced this month,” the paper said,
RSS