Chiayi County authorities have taken a suspect into custody after a five-hour hostage situation ended yesterday afternoon, with police reportedly uncovering a small arsenal of firearms and explosives at the suspect’s home.
After conducting a search of the home of the suspect, surnamed Chen (陳), Chiayi police said they confiscated two assault rifles, 11 handguns, one hand grenade, 20 homemade explosive devices, and a cache of ammunition.
A specialized police unit was called to deal with an apparent hostage incident yesterday morning, after shots and explosions rang out, alarming residents in Chiayi’s Minsyong Township (民雄).
“The suspect had taken a man surnamed Wu (吳) hostage, who was living in another apartment in the building. Wu managed to run away after about half an hour, but had injuries on his feet when he fled outside,” a police captain surnamed Chang (張) from the Minsyong Police Precinct said.
Police surrounded the area, but Chen refused to surrender for five hours, firing shots and detonating homemade explosive devices intermittently, Chang said.
Police brought an old friend of Chen’s to the scene to encourage him to surrender, while Chang negotiated with him on the telephone.
Chen later allowed Chang to enter the building and gave up one assault rifle and five handguns.
He agreed to surrender at about 1:20pm, and exited his home carrying no firearms.
Chang said that the suspect had fired more than 30 bullets, while no shot was fired by police.
Police said they were surprised at the amount of firearms and explosives found inside Chen’s apartment, adding that they were glad Chen surrendered, ending the incident peacefully.
Chen had served a 13-year sentence for attempted murder and possession illegal firearms.
In January, he allegedly fired more than 50 rounds near a pawnshop in Changhua County’s Siushui Township (秀水), due to a financial dispute.
Separately yesterday, Pingtung City police said they raided an underground factory, which was found to have been producing modified handguns and ammunition, and have taken a man into custody.
Officials told reporters that the suspect allegedly ran the factory, where one modified 9mm handgun and a large amount of bullets were seized.
The suspect allegedly took orders from clients, and modified airsoft guns to make 9mm handguns.
He reportedly charged NT$30,000 for each order.
A group of Taiwanese-American and Tibetan-American students at Harvard University on Saturday disrupted Chinese Ambassador to the US Xie Feng’s (謝鋒) speech at the school, accusing him of being responsible for numerous human rights violations. Four students — two Taiwanese Americans and two from Tibet — held up banners inside a conference hall where Xie was delivering a speech at the opening ceremony of the Harvard Kennedy School China Conference 2024. In a video clip provided by the Coalition of Students Resisting the CCP (Chinese Communist Party), Taiwanese-American Cosette Wu (吳亭樺) and Tibetan-American Tsering Yangchen are seen holding banners that together read:
UNAWARE: Many people sit for long hours every day and eat unhealthy foods, putting them at greater risk of developing one of the ‘three highs,’ an expert said More than 30 percent of adults aged 40 or older who underwent a government-funded health exam were unaware they had at least one of the “three highs” — high blood pressure, high blood lipids or high blood sugar, the Health Promotion Administration (HPA) said yesterday. Among adults aged 40 or older who said they did not have any of the “three highs” before taking the health exam, more than 30 percent were found to have at least one of them, Adult Preventive Health Examination Service data from 2022 showed. People with long-term medical conditions such as hypertension or diabetes usually do not
POLICE INVESTIGATING: A man said he quit his job as a nurse at Taipei Tzu Chi Hospital as he had been ‘disgusted’ by the behavior of his colleagues A man yesterday morning wrote online that he had witnessed nurses taking photographs and touching anesthetized patients inappropriately in Taipei Tzu Chi Hospital’s operating theaters. The man surnamed Huang (黃) wrote on the Professional Technology Temple bulletin board that during his six-month stint as a nurse at the hospital, he had seen nurses taking pictures of patients, including of their private parts, after they were anesthetized. Some nurses had also touched patients inappropriately and children were among those photographed, he said. Huang said this “disgusted” him “so much” that “he felt the need to reveal these unethical acts in the operating theater
Heat advisories were in effect for nine administrative regions yesterday afternoon as warm southwesterly winds pushed temperatures above 38°C in parts of southern Taiwan, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. As of 3:30pm yesterday, Tainan’s Yujing District (玉井) had recorded the day’s highest temperature of 39.7°C, though the measurement will not be included in Taiwan’s official heat records since Yujing is an automatic rather than manually operated weather station, the CWA said. Highs recorded in other areas were 38.7°C in Kaohsiung’s Neimen District (內門), 38.2°C in Chiayi City and 38.1°C in Pingtung’s Sandimen Township (三地門), CWA data showed. The spell of scorching