A 66-year-old man was on Friday morning hit in the ankle by a bullet while hiking on Chaishan (柴山) in Kaohsiung, leading police to investigate whether the bullet came from a nearby firing range where marines were training.
The hiker, surnamed Chen (陳), told police that at about 10am, he was taking a break with friends at a tourist attraction on the mountain when he felt a sharp pain on his left ankle, the Kaohsiung Police Department’s Gushan Precinct said.
At the time, Chen said that he heard “firecrackers.”
Taking off his hiking boot, he said that he found he had been impaled by something sharp.
With the help of friends and national park police, Chen went to a hospital, where a doctor confirmed that he had a gunshot wound, police said.
Chen is recovering after surgery, a Chung-Ho Hospital doctor reported.
Police said that at about 5pm, they found a bullet about 200m from where the man had been shot.
The bullet appeared to be a rifle or machine gun round, although a ballistic examination would be needed for a firm identification, they added.
An investigation has been launched to determine whether the military was responsible for the incident after it was confirmed that the Marine Corps held a live-fire exercise on Chaishan from 8am to noon.
Two firing ranges are nearby, 1.5km to 2km from where Chen was hit, but the military has declined the location of Friday’s training.
Later on Friday, the Marine Corps Command said in a statement that it would cooperate with the police investigation and that live-fire training on Chaishan had been suspended.
If found to be responsible, the military said that it would only reopen the ranges once safety measures had been reviewed and improvements made.
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