Police and firefighters in New Taipei City yesterday prevented a potential family tragedy, as a woman threatened to blow up herself and her family following a domestic dispute.
The crisis ended peacefully, with the woman and her husband sent to hospital for evaluation.
The incident took place at a residential building in New Taipei City’s Banciao District (板橋).
Building residents at about 2pm called firefighters after they heard a violent quarrel between a man, surnamed Tu (杜), and his wife, surnamed Chien (簡), police said.
Police who arrived on the scene said Chien became very upset over the dispute, turned on the gas cylinder and threatened to blow up the apartment to take her own life, along with the lives of her husband and their three children.
Due to the fear of a gas explosion, the authorities cordoned off the surrounding area and evacuated neighboring apartments, according to a police report.
There was a standoff, with the children reported to be held hostage by the couple during the dispute, police said.
Negotiators entered the building to talk to Chien to calm her down and to assess the situation inside the apartment, they said.
Chien became further infuriated and ran up to the building’s roof, where she took a knife to her throat and shouted that she would commit suicide by jumping off the building, police said.
Firefighters at the scene moved in quickly to evacuate the children, police said.
Negotiators later succeeded in calming Chien down, then led her outside, where medics took her to the Far Eastern Memorial Hospital in Banciao, and took Tu to another hospital for medical examination and observation.
The dispute might have been triggered by financial problems, police said, adding that the couple are raising six children, with three younger children being at home on the day of the incident, while the other three were at school, and their landlord saying the couple had not paid the rent in months, owing him more than NT$100,000.
The landlord said the couple had caused serious trouble to him, and that he had sought a court order to demand payment.
Chien was also heard telling police officers her husband had been fooling around with another woman.
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