{"id":458566,"date":"2025-12-19T21:23:22","date_gmt":"2025-12-19T21:23:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/458566\/"},"modified":"2025-12-19T21:23:22","modified_gmt":"2025-12-19T21:23:22","slug":"knife-attacker-kills-three-after-smoke-bombing-taipei-metro","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/458566\/","title":{"rendered":"Knife attacker kills three after smoke bombing Taipei metro"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"EPA\/ShutterstockEPA\/Shutterstock<\/p>\n

At least three people have been killed and nine others injured as a knife-wielding attacker \u200dwent \u200don a \u200brampage in the Taiwanese capital Taipei.<\/p>\n

The 27-year-old suspect set off smoke bombs at Taipei’s main metro station, before running to another station in a busy shopping district, stabbing people along the way, Taiwanese Premier Cho Jung-tai said. <\/p>\n

The suspect, named by officials as Taiwanese man Chang Wen, later died after falling from a multi-storey building, Cho added. His motive remains unclear.<\/p>\n

Attacks of this kind are rare in Taiwan, which has low rates of violent crime. The last time a similar incident struck Taipei was more than a decade ago in 2014.<\/p>\n

Friday’s attack took place at about 17:20 local time (09:20 GMT) <\/b>during the city’s evening rush hour.<\/p>\n

Videos shared on social media show people fleeing the scene in panic as an individual wearing a baseball cap and black clothing <\/b>lobs smoke bombs across a busy road.<\/p>\n

He can then be seen carrying a large knife as he walks past several cars. <\/p>\n

Cho said the suspect had detonated smoke bombs and Molotov cocktails at Taipei’s Main Station, which is connected to a busy underground shopping street. <\/p>\n

A man reportedly tried to stop the attacker but was struck with a blunt object and later died in hospital.<\/p>\n

The suspect then fled through an underground shopping centre to the nearby Zhongshan Station, about a 800m walk away. <\/p>\n

After a detour to his hotel, where he picked up a weapon, he ran back to the street outside Zhongshan Station and set off further smoke bombs. He also stabbed more people.<\/p>\n

The attacker went into a nearby bookshop and department store, but fell from the building after police surrounded him. He died shortly after in hospital.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

Cho said he <\/b>had ordered increased security at metro and railway stations, as well as airports, in response to the attack.<\/p>\n

“We will \u200cinvestigate [the suspect’s] background and associated relationships to understand his motives and \u200ddetermine \u200cif there are other connected factors,” the Taiwanese premier <\/b>was quoted by news agency Reuters as saying. <\/p>\n

Taiwan’s President William Lai also promised a swift investigation. <\/p>\n

The suspect had a criminal record and was wanted by the authorities, according to local media reports.<\/p>\n

The last major incident of this kind, in 2014, saw a man kill four people on an underground train in Taipei, shocking people in Taiwan. The perpetrator of that attack was executed two years later.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"EPA\/Shutterstock At least three people have been killed and nine others injured as a knife-wielding attacker \u200dwent \u200don…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":458567,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[50,103],"class_list":{"0":"post-458566","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-world","8":"tag-news","9":"tag-world"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115748342674844103","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/458566","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=458566"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/458566\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/458567"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=458566"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=458566"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=458566"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}