The American Institute in Taiwan (AIT) yesterday said it is not aware that any bullets were found near its Taipei office in response to a local media report that 10 bullets had been found in a drain near the AIT building.
“We have not heard anything about bullets being found near [the] AIT,” AIT spokesperson Joseph Bookbinder said by telephone.
Storm Media, an online news agency, yesterday said 10 bullets were found by police earlier this month in a drain close to the AIT complex on Xinyi Road.
The media report said they were bullets from a revolver owned by the National Police Agency with a stamped batch number showing that they were made in 1991.
However, the agency did not find any record of missing bullets made that year or records showing that the bullets had become obsolete, exposing a major oversight of firearms in the police department, Storm Media said.
A police officer found the bullets while searching for his key that had fallen into the drain while on a routine patrol around the AIT complex earlier this month, Storm Media reported, adding that the police agency has ordered an investigation to trace the source of the bullets and find out who is responsible for the oversight.
The report said that the incident has caused concern at AIT.
Last night, Tsao Nien-fa (鄒年發), head of the police agency’s Special Police Sixth Headquarters, which is in charge of security in the area, confirmed the discovery of the bullets on Dec. 16.
Tsao said his office did not inform AIT of the incident because it did not consider it a matter of grave security concern.
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