Local authorities reminded the public of the dangers of strong currents at shorelines, following recent drowning accidents.
On Friday, a 20-year-old American tourist was swept into the sea by waves at a beach in New Taipei City’s Gongliao District (貢寮) and was found dead at about 1:25pm the following day at the nearby Yanliao Beach (鹽寮沙灘), the New Taipei City Fire Department said.
The tourist was part of a group of eight students from the same technical institute in the US, they said.
Photo: Liu Yu-ching, Taipei Times
The Ruifang Precinct said the body was brought ashore at about 2:10pm, and was confirmed to be the missing man.
Forensic personnel from the precinct would collect evidence at the scene, and the Keelung District Prosecutors’ Office would carry out an investigation and an autopsy to determine the cause of death, the police said.
The fire department said it had received a report at 5:37pm on Friday that three people from a group of eight tourists had been swept off wave breakers by waves.
Witnesses at the scene said the three people were about 100m from the beach when it happened.
Two were quickly rescued and brought ashore, but the third was missing, the fire department said.
Police, firefighters and Coast Guard Administration (CGA) personnel conducted a search-and-rescue operation through the night until the body was found on Saturday afternoon, they said.
Separately, search efforts continued for one Mexican who had been swept away while swimming at Green Island’s (綠島) Dabaisha Beach (大白沙沙灘) on Friday.
The CGA said it received a call for help past 1pm, after which they sent out its PP-10086 patrol boat to search for the missing person and requested for air sorties from a rescue helicopter unit.
At the site, CGA officials took down information from witnesses and those at the beach, and found that the missing person was a 23-year-old Mexican who was with a trio of friends for water recreation activities at the beach.
The foreigner’s companions said they went on the walkway that extended from the beach into the intertidal zone, where they got into the water to swim for a little while.
When they could not find their friend as they were going back to the shoreline, they shouted for help and assumed he had gotten swept away by the strong rip tide and carried out to sea, they said.
China might accelerate its strategic actions toward Taiwan, the South China Sea and across the first island chain, after the US officially entered a military conflict with Iran, as Beijing would perceive Washington as incapable of fighting a two-front war, a military expert said yesterday. The US’ ongoing conflict with Iran is not merely an act of retaliation or a “delaying tactic,” but a strategic military campaign aimed at dismantling Tehran’s nuclear capabilities and reshaping the regional order in the Middle East, said National Defense University distinguished adjunct lecturer Holmes Liao (廖宏祥), former McDonnell Douglas Aerospace representative in Taiwan. If
TO BE APPEALED: The environment ministry said coal reduction goals had to be reached within two months, which was against the principle of legitimate expectation The Taipei High Administrative Court on Thursday ruled in favor of the Taichung Environmental Protection Bureau in its administrative litigation against the Ministry of Environment for the rescission of a NT$18 million fine (US$609,570) imposed by the bureau on the Taichung Power Plant in 2019 for alleged excess coal power generation. The bureau in November 2019 revised what it said was a “slip of the pen” in the text of the operating permit granted to the plant — which is run by Taiwan Power Co (Taipower) — in October 2017. The permit originally read: “reduce coal use by 40 percent from Jan.
‘SPEY’ REACTION: Beijing said its Eastern Theater Command ‘organized troops to monitor and guard the entire process’ of a Taiwan Strait transit China sent 74 warplanes toward Taiwan between late Thursday and early yesterday, 61 of which crossed the median line in the Taiwan Strait. It was not clear why so many planes were scrambled, said the Ministry of National Defense, which tabulated the flights. The aircraft were sent in two separate tranches, the ministry said. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs on Thursday “confirmed and welcomed” a transit by the British Royal Navy’s HMS Spey, a River-class offshore patrol vessel, through the Taiwan Strait a day earlier. The ship’s transit “once again [reaffirmed the Strait’s] status as international waters,” the foreign ministry said. “Such transits by
Taiwan is doing everything it can to prevent a military conflict with China, including building up asymmetric defense capabilities and fortifying public resilience, Vice President Hsiao Bi-khim (蕭美琴) said in a recent interview. “Everything we are doing is to prevent a conflict from happening, whether it is 2027 or before that or beyond that,” Hsiao told American podcaster Shawn Ryan of the Shawn Ryan Show. She was referring to a timeline cited by several US military and intelligence officials, who said Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) had instructed the Chinese People’s Liberation Army to be ready to take military action against Taiwan