Police arrested a man yesterday after he allegedly robbed the Lugu-Cingsheui (鹿谷清水) post office in Nantou County and set it on fire, county police said.
The police said the 43-year-old man, surnamed Huang (黃), allegedly attacked and robbed the office when the office manager, surnamed Liu (劉), was processing packages, and then set the place on fire before fleeing to the county’s Jiji Township (集集).
Police arrested Huang at about noon in an area near Sun Moon Lake (日月潭).
Photo: Liu Pin-chuan, Taipei Times
The county’s fire bureau said it received a report about the post office fire in the morning, and soon dispatched firefighters from several townships around the area to the scene.
When the team arrived, it saw fire and smoke and suspected that someone might have robbed the post office before setting it alight.
Although no one was trapped in the blaze, the post office’s 63-year-old manager was attacked by the suspect and had a 3cm wound on his back and bruises on his left forearm, the bureau said.
Liu was sent to Chu Shang Show Chwan Hospital for treatment, the bureau said.
The fire, which was extinguished within half an hour, covered about 20m2, but the losses have yet to be calculated, it said.
Meanwhile, the police said this was the second time that the post office has been robbed in six years. In August 2018, a 38-year-old man surnamed Chou (周) threatened post office workers with a gun and stole NT$500,000 within 20 seconds.
Police suggested that the Lugu-Cingsheui post office has been targeted because the office was relatively small and located in a rural area, making it more vulnerable to a robbery.
Meanwhile, local residents said the area was peaceful and the post office — located between Lugu (鹿谷) and Jiji townships — had only one manager and one part-time worker, as they urged local police to help keep the area safe as the Lunar New Year approaches.
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