Police yesterday named a 64-year-old former tenant as a suspect in a house fire in Taichung’s Wurih District (烏日) that left a 17-year-old and her 50-year-old mother dead.
Wurih Precinct Deputy Chief Hung Ming-chiang (洪明強) told a news conference that a van without license plates belonging to the suspect, surnamed Hsu (許), was found badly damaged by the fire at the scene.
The Taichung Fire Bureau said it received a report of the blaze at the two-story sheet-metal building on Wuguang Road at 2:15am yesterday morning.
Photo: CNA
Most of the flames and smoke were coming from the ground floor of the building, it said, adding that the fire was extinguished at 2:44am.
The mother and daughter were found on the upper floor of the building with no signs of life and transported to two different hospitals, the bureau said.
The mother, who had sustained second-degree burns to 80 percent of her body, was in critical condition at Chung Shan Medical University Hospital in Taichung, but later declared dead.
Her 17-year-old daughter sustained second-degree burns to 20 percent of her body and was later pronounced dead at Asia University Hospital, the bureau said.
Police said Hsu was a tenant of a property owned by the victims’ family for more than 20 years, but was served an eviction notice in July.
A member of the landlord’s family, who identified Hsu as a suspect to police, said he believed the family’s former tenant might have caused the fire because of the contentious nature of the eviction.
In addition, the landlord’s family was seeking damages from Hsu, whom they accused of sexually harassing the teenage victim, police said.
Hsu was located at 4:20am after his daughter contacted police to report that he had attempted suicide, police said.
Eight Chinese naval vessels and 24 military aircraft were detected crossing the median line of the Taiwan Strait between 6am yesterday and 6am today, the Ministry of National Defense said this morning. The aircraft entered Taiwan’s northern, central, southwestern and eastern air defense identification zones, the ministry said. The armed forces responded with mission aircraft, naval vessels and shore-based missile systems to closely monitor the situation, it added. Eight naval vessels, one official ship and 36 aircraft sorties were spotted in total, the ministry said.
INCREASED CAPACITY: The flights on Mondays, Wednesdays, Fridays and Sundays would leave Singapore in the morning and Taipei in the afternoon Singapore Airlines is adding four supplementary flights to Taipei per week until May to meet increased tourist and business travel demand, the carrier said on Friday. The addition would raise the number of weekly flights it operates to Taipei to 18, Singapore Airlines Taiwan general manager Timothy Ouyang (歐陽漢源) said. The airline has recorded a steady rise in tourist and business travel to and from Taipei, and aims to provide more flexible travel arrangements for passengers, said Ouyang, who assumed the post in July last year. From now until Saturday next week, four additional flights would depart from Singapore on Monday, Wednesday, Friday
The Ministry of National Defense yesterday reported the return of large-scale Chinese air force activities after their unexplained absence for more than two weeks, which had prompted speculation regarding Beijing’s motives. China usually sends fighter jets, drones and other military aircraft around the nation on a daily basis. Interruptions to such routine are generally caused by bad weather. The Ministry of National Defense said it had detected 26 Chinese military aircraft in the Taiwan Strait over the previous 24 hours. It last reported that many aircraft on Feb. 25, when it spotted 30 aircraft, saying Beijing was carrying out another “joint combat
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) today said that if South Korea does not reply appropriately to its request to correct Taiwan’s name on its e-Arrival card system before March 31, it would take corresponding measures to alter how South Korea is labeled on the online Taiwan Arrival Card system. South Korea’s e-Arrival card system lists Taiwan as “China (Taiwan)” in the “point of departure” and “next destination” fields. The ministry said that it changed the nationality for South Koreans on Taiwan’s Alien Resident Certificates from “Korea” to “South Korea” on March 1, in a gesture of goodwill and based on the
RSS