A Kaohsiung man was arrested early this morning after calling the Taipei metro system threatening to kill people on a city subway, the Taipei Police Department said.
The suspect is a 36-year-old man who reportedly has a history of making prank calls threatening violence, several sources said.
Photo: CNA
In a news release, the department's Songshan Precinct said the Taipei Metro Operations Control Center reported receiving a phone call at about 7pm yesterday from a person who claimed he would kill people in a subway car between Nanjing Sanmin Station and Songshan Station.
Following the call, members of the Taipei police and fire departments were deployed to Songshan Station.
Joined by station personnel, they searched a train that pulled into the station within the suspected time frame as well as the station, but did not find any victims, leading officials to deem the threat a hoax.
An investigation was launched, and after obtaining an arrest warrant from the Taipei District Prosecutors' Office, police took the caller into custody in Kaohsiung at about 2am on suspicion of contravening public safety provisions of the Criminal Code.
According to several local media sources, authorities found that the caller has a moderate disability certificate and a history of being arrested for making prank calls.
He was reportedly found to have made a call in 2024 to Taiwan Railway Corp claiming that he would commit killings on a train and was also taken into custody at the time, but sources did not say what happened to him after that.
Under the Criminal Code, people who "endanger public safety by putting the public in fear of injury to life, body or property," which could apply to prank calls, can be sentenced to up to two years in jail.
Given the possibility of him having a disability, the caller could also be required to be admitted to a mental health institution instead.
During his arrest, the caller blamed his actions on boredom and bad influences, the Chinese-language Liberty Times (sister paper of the Taipei Times) reported.
His father who lives with him said he was unable to prevent his son from misbehaving, the report said.
The case would be handed over to Taipei prosecutors for further questioning and possible prosecution as a part of the ongoing investigation.
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