A rat sighting sent more than 100 Taipei Mass Rapid Transit (MRT) system passengers fleeing in panic yesterday, leaving a trail of shoes, bags and other personal belongings as they rushed for the exit.
The incident occurred on a train bound for MRT Xiangshan Station (象山站) on the Tamsui-Xinyi Line (淡水信義線), also known as the Red Line, at about 9am.
“Many people suddenly started screaming and running. It was like a scene from Train to Busan as people pushed each other and an elderly man fell down,” a witness said in a post on Professional Technology Temple — the nation’s largest online academic bulletin board system.
Photo courtesy of Bao Fei Gong She
Train to Busan was a hit South Korean zombie action thriller that takes place on a train.
Many people thought it was another random attack targeting MRT passengers, the witness said.
Photographs and videos posted online showed the empty train with a few bags, more than a dozen shoes, spilled beverages and other items scattered on the floor of the train and station platform.
MRT operator Taipei Rapid Transit Corp (TRTC) issued a news release saying that the incident occured at 9:04am near MRT Daan Forest Park Station (大安森林公園站), and that the control center had immediately informed the approximately 700 passengers on the train to disembark at the next station — Daan (大安站) — and wait for the next train as station staff tried to calm the passengers.
Two riders were mildly injured during the stampede, the company said.
Station staff called an ambulance to take the injured passengers to hospital, it said.
People who left their personal belongings during the incident can retrieve them at Daan Station, it said.
TRTC in the afternoon confirmed that surveillance footage of the incident showed a 10cm-long rat entering the train at MRT Daan Forest Park Station and alighting at Daan Station.
As of press time last night, the rat had not been found, the company said.
The company keeps stations and trains clean at all times and has installed rat and cockroach-catching devices in stations, which catch an average of three to five rats every month, it said.
LIMITS: While China increases military pressure on Taiwan and expands its use of cognitive warfare, it is unwilling to target tech supply chains, the report said US and Taiwan military officials have warned that the Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) could implement a blockade within “a matter of hours” and need only “minimal conversion time” prior to an attack on Taiwan, a report released on Tuesday by the US Senate’s China Economic and Security Review Commission said. “While there is no indication that China is planning an imminent attack, the United States and its allies and partners can no longer assume that a Taiwan contingency is a distant possibility for which they would have ample time to prepare,” it said. The commission made the comments in its annual
DETERMINATION: Beijing’s actions toward Tokyo have drawn international attention, but would likely bolster regional coordination and defense networks, the report said Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi’s administration is likely to prioritize security reforms and deterrence in the face of recent “hybrid” threats from China, the National Security Bureau (NSB) said. The bureau made the assessment in a written report to the Legislative Yuan ahead of an oral report and questions-and-answers session at the legislature’s Foreign Affairs and National Defense Committee tomorrow. The key points of Japan’s security reforms would be to reinforce security cooperation with the US, including enhancing defense deployment in the first island chain, pushing forward the integrated command and operations of the Japan Self-Defense Forces and US Forces Japan, as
IN THE NATIONAL INTEREST: Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Francois Wu said the strengthening of military facilities would help to maintain security in the Taiwan Strait Japanese Minister of Defense Shinjiro Koizumi, visiting a military base close to Taiwan, said plans to deploy missiles to the post would move forward as tensions smolder between Tokyo and Beijing. “The deployment can help lower the chance of an armed attack on our country,” Koizumi told reporters on Sunday as he wrapped up his first trip to the base on the southern Japanese island of Yonaguni. “The view that it will heighten regional tensions is not accurate.” Former Japanese minister of defense Gen Nakatani in January said that Tokyo wanted to base Type 03 Chu-SAM missiles on Yonaguni, but little progress
NO CHANGES: A Japanese spokesperson said that Tokyo remains consistent and open for dialogue, while Beijing has canceled diplomatic engagements A Japanese official blasted China’s claims that Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi has altered Japan’s position on a Taiwan crisis as “entirely baseless,” calling for more dialogue to stop ties between Asia’s top economies from spiraling. China vowed to take resolute self-defense against Japan if it “dared to intervene militarily in the Taiwan Strait” in a letter delivered Friday to the UN. “I’m aware of this letter,” said Maki Kobayashi, a senior Japanese government spokeswoman. “The claim our country has altered its position is entirely baseless,” she said on the sidelines of the G20 summit in Johannesburg on Saturday. The Chinese Ministry
RSS