Taipei police have detained a woman and are to place her under psychiatric evaluation after she allegedly carried out random slashing attacks on a street and on the MRT metropolitan rail system.
The latest attack took place at about 6pm on Monday at the MRT Taipei Main Station, where the suspect cut a woman across the chest, police said.
The victim sustained a 15cm wound and was treated by paramedics, they said.
The suspect, surnamed Wang (王), 37, was quickly overpowered by passengers and security personnel at the scene of the attack, said police Captain Chen Chin-cheng (陳金城), who heads a unit responsible for security on the MRT system.
“The suspect was taken to a police station, where she behaved erratically during questioning and seemed to have psychological problems,” Chen said.
Medical experts were called in for an examination and they said that Wang had a mental disorder, he said, adding that police have requested a psychiatric evaluation at a hospital.
Wang’s police record showed that she last week carried out a similar attack with a box cutter, Chen said.
A woman surnamed Lin (林) on Thursday last week filed a police report after being slashed by an assailant while she was walking on a street in the city’s Wanhua District (萬華), Chen said, adding that she sustained a 10cm cut on her arm.
Wang told police that she carried the box cutter with the intention of slashing people, but could not explain why, he said.
Police urged the public to remain alert and be aware of their surroundings when walking on the streets and riding the MRT or other forms of public transportation.
An increase in Taiwanese boats using China-made automatic identification systems (AIS) could confuse coast guards patrolling waters off Taiwan’s southwest coast and become a loophole in the national security system, sources familiar with the matter said yesterday. Taiwan ADIZ, a Facebook page created by enthusiasts who monitor Chinese military activities in airspace and waters off Taiwan’s southwest coast, on Saturday identified what seemed to be a Chinese cargo container ship near Penghu County. The Coast Guard Administration went to the location after receiving the tip and found that it was a Taiwanese yacht, which had a Chinese AIS installed. Similar instances had also
GOOD DIPLOMACY: The KMT has maintained close contact with representative offices in Taiwan and had extended an invitation to Russia as well, the KMT said The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) would “appropriately handle” the fallout from an invitation it had extended to Russia’s representative to Taipei to attend its international banquet last month, KMT Chairman Eric Chu (朱立倫) said yesterday. US and EU representatives in Taiwan boycotted the event, and only later agreed to attend after the KMT rescinded its invitation to the Russian representative. The KMT has maintained long-term close contact with all representative offices and embassies in Taiwan, and had extended the invitation as a practice of good diplomacy, Chu said. “Some EU countries have expressed their opinions of Russia, and the KMT respects that,” he
AMENDMENT: Contact with certain individuals in China, Hong Kong and Macau must be reported, and failure to comply could result in a prison sentence, the proposal stated The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and the Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) yesterday voted against a proposed bill by Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) lawmakers that would require elected officials to seek approval before visiting China. DPP Legislator Puma Shen’s (沈伯洋) proposed amendments to the Act Governing Relations Between the People of the Taiwan Area and the Mainland Area (臺灣地區與大陸地區人民關係條例), stipulate that contact with certain individuals in China, Hong Kong and Macau should be reported, while failure to comply would be punishable by prison sentences of up to three years, alongside a fine of NT$10 million (US$309,041). Fifty-six voted with the TPP in opposition
VIGILANCE: The military is paying close attention to actions that might damage peace and stability in the region, the deputy minister of national defense said The People’s Republic of China (PRC) might consider initiating a hack on Taiwanese networks on May 20, the day of the inauguration ceremony of president-elect William Lai (賴清德), sources familiar with cross-strait issues said. While US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken’s statement of the US expectation “that all sides will conduct themselves with restraint and prudence in the period ahead” would prevent military actions by China, Beijing could still try to sabotage Taiwan’s inauguration ceremony, the source said. China might gain access to the video screens outside of the Presidential Office Building and display embarrassing messages from Beijing, such as congratulating Lai