On the 19th, a reporter from the main station learned that the attacks at Taipei Main Station and Zhongshan MRT Station resulted in a total of 4 deaths and 5 injuries, including the perpetrators.
According to information from the Taipei City Fire Department and Police Department, the 27-year-old assailant named Zhang threw smoke bombs at Taipei Station around 5:30 pm on the 19th and slashed people with a knife, injuring two people. He then went to the Zhongshan MRT Station, threw smoke bombs on the road, and then broke into the Eslite Nanxi store with a knife, slashing many passers-by along the way. The assailant entered the shopping mall, climbed to the top of the fifth floor, and jumped off the building while surrounded by police.
After the incident, a total of 9 injured people were sent to hospital. According to hospital sources, as of 22:30 on the 19th, four people, including the assailant, were dead.
After the random injury incident, the Taipei City administrative agency established the "1219 Emergency Security Response Task Force". The head of the local administrative department asked the police department and other units to activate the city's security alert and inspection mechanism, and to deploy additional police forces around Taipei's gathering points, stations, business districts and large-scale events. A reporter from the main station discovered at a road intersection in Taipei that police officers were on guard with long guns.
The Taoyuan City District Procuratorate stated that the man surnamed Zhang who committed the crime failed to declare his residence registration, which resulted in the failure to deliver the "recruitment order" for military service. He was wanted in July this year for allegedly obstructing military service criminal regulations. (Headquarters reporter Wang Wenliang)
