Taipei police were yesterday investigating an acid attack at a National Taiwan University (NTU) dormitory, where the alleged perpetrator is suspected of having committed suicide after harming three people, one of whom is believed to be his former boyfriend.
The suspect, a 25-year-old National Taiwan University of Science and Technology graduate surnamed Chang (張), apparently killed himself with a fruit knife.
Chang went to the dormitory in the early hours of yesterday morning to speak with a 23-year-old NTU Department of Psychology graduate student surnamed Hsieh (謝), Daan Police Precinct Deputy Chief Huang Kuo-chen (黃國珍) said.
Photo: Lu Chun-wei, Taipei Times
Chang reportedly had a heated argument with Hsieh, who was with another NTU student, surnamed Luo (駱), in the dormitory’s guest meeting room, police said.
Chang allegedly threw an open vial of acid at Hsieh and Luo, police said, adding that the acid burned Chang and a security guard, surnamed Ku (谷), who was trying to calm the situation.
Witnesses said that Chang then took out a fruit knife and tried to stab Hsieh before chasing him outside.
Photo: CNA, provided by Taipei police
Police quoted witnesses as saying that Hsieh fell to the ground and Chang, perhaps assuming that Hsieh was dead, stabbed himself several times before throwing acid on his neck in an apparent suicide attempt.
“I saw them running outside. Both men had damaged skin and smoke coming off their bodies,” one witness said.
The injured were taken to hospital.
Photo: CNA, provided by Taipei police
Chang was pronounced dead at the scene.
The attack appears premeditated, as Chang had a knife, glass vials containing sulfuric acid and a stun gun in his backpack, police said.
As of press time last night, Hsieh was in a critical condition.
He sustained serious cuts and acid burns on more than 60 percent of his body, doctors said.
Luo and Ku’s conditions were not critical, because they were only partly burned, they added.
Prosecutors yesterday investigated the crime scene and interviewed witnesses, two of the victims and their family and friends.
An autopsy was performed on Chang to determine if he had consumed alcohol or drugs prior to the attack.
According to media reports and discussion threads on Professional Technology Temple (PTT), the nation’s largest online academic bulletin board, Chang was romantically involved with Hsieh, with some citing as evidence that both men shared information in support of same-sex marriage on Facebook.
“One of the men wanted to break up, but the other did not,” Ku told reporters.
“[Hsieh] had told his mother about his sexual orientation. He did not dare to tell me and I did not want to ask,” Hsieh’s father, who visited his son in hospital, told reporters.
Hsieh’s parents said they had met Chang, as their son had brought him home once and said that they were good friends.
A Chinese aircraft carrier group entered Japan’s economic waters over the weekend, before exiting to conduct drills involving fighter jets, the Japanese Ministry of Defense said yesterday. The Liaoning aircraft carrier, two missile destroyers and one fast combat supply ship sailed about 300km southwest of Japan’s easternmost island of Minamitori on Saturday, a ministry statement said. It was the first time a Chinese aircraft carrier had entered that part of Japan’s exclusive economic zone (EEZ), a ministry spokesman said. “We think the Chinese military is trying to improve its operational capability and ability to conduct operations in distant areas,” the spokesman said. China’s growing
Nine retired generals from Taiwan, Japan and the US have been invited to participate in a tabletop exercise hosted by the Taipei School of Economics and Political Science Foundation tomorrow and Wednesday that simulates a potential Chinese invasion of Taiwan in 2030, the foundation said yesterday. The five retired Taiwanese generals would include retired admiral Lee Hsi-min (李喜明), joined by retired US Navy admiral Michael Mullen and former chief of staff of the Japan Self-Defense Forces general Shigeru Iwasaki, it said. The simulation aims to offer strategic insights into regional security and peace in the Taiwan Strait, it added. Foundation chair Huang Huang-hsiung
PUBLIC WARNING: The two students had been tricked into going to Hong Kong for a ‘high-paying’ job, which sent them to a scam center in Cambodia Police warned the public not to trust job advertisements touting high pay abroad following the return of two college students over the weekend who had been trafficked and forced to work at a cyberscam center in Cambodia. The two victims, surnamed Lee (李), 18, and Lin (林), 19, were interviewed by police after landing in Taiwan on Saturday. Taichung’s Chingshui Police Precinct said in a statement yesterday that the two students are good friends, and Lin had suspended her studies after seeing the ad promising good pay to work in Hong Kong. Lee’s grandfather on Thursday reported to police that Lee had sent
BUILDUP: US General Dan Caine said Chinese military maneuvers are not routine exercises, but instead are ‘rehearsals for a forced unification’ with Taiwan China poses an increasingly aggressive threat to the US and deterring Beijing is the Pentagon’s top regional priority amid its rapid military buildup and invasion drills near Taiwan, US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth said on Tuesday. “Our pacing threat is communist China,” Hegseth told the US House of Representatives Appropriations Subcommittee on Defense during an oversight hearing with US General Dan Caine, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. “Beijing is preparing for war in the Indo-Pacific as part of its broader strategy to dominate that region and then the world,” Hegseth said, adding that if it succeeds, it could derail
RSS