The police yesterday made public video footage of the suspect who allegedly triggered a van explosion near the Taipei Railway Station yesterday and is suspected of also mailing letters to two local TV stations with bomb threats.
The video footage was from a security video system inside a convenience store on Taipei City's Gongyuan Road. On the footage, the suspect covered his face with a hat and a surgical mask. He was wandering outside the store for awhile and seemed to be waiting for something.
PHOTO: FANG BIN-CHAO, TAIPEI TIMES
When a FedEx deliveryman came, he immediately hurried into the convenience store and asked the clerk to deliver two packages, which were the two bomb threats to TV stations.
After the footage was released, a man was taken into custody by police last night under suspicion of being the man in the video. According to the Taipei City Police Department's Chungcheng First Precinct, the man had been loitering around a convenience store in the area when police spotted him because of his conspicuous outfit.
The man was wearing a fisherman's hat and a sports jacket on which the words "CIA" had been written in black marker. However, the man was released after the FedEx deliveryman who had seen the bomb suspect confirmed that the man was not the one he had seen. The man was released.
"[The suspect in the video] looks 170cm tall and 35 years of age," said Feng Tung-san (馮棟森), deputy commissioner of the National Police Agency's Criminal Investigation Bureau (CIB). "In the letters, the suspect said that there will be at least four bomb explosions in the city before election day."
Feng said that police had collected seven usable fingerprints from the crime scene and are currently matching them with their records.
In the meantime, the CIB also announced a NT$1 million reward to whoever provides sufficient information that leads to the arrest of the suspect.
Also, the police said that they strongly suspect that the suspect is a person who does not know how to use a computer because he handwrote the letters and misspelled several words in his letters.
The suspect sent the letters to TTV and TVBS on Thursday, stating that the Taipei Railway Station and Taipei 101 will be the targets of his attacks.
Around 12pm, a mini-van that had been loaded with 11 20kg gas tanks exploded in a parking lot next to the station. The vehicle was completely destroyed. Nobody was injured in the explosion, but two other vehicles parked nearby were also destroyed.
At Taipei 101, the police immediately sealed the building and carried out a search for other potential explosives.
The raid was conducted by more than 200 police officers, military police and special agents overnight, because President Chen Shui-bian (
In addition to a raid at the building, the military police also deployed snipers on the roofs of nearby buildings to prevent a potential assassination attempt or attack on the president during the activity.
A magnitude 4.9 earthquake struck off Tainan at 11:47am today, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. The hypocenter was 32.3km northeast of Tainan City Hall at a depth of 7.3km, CWA data showed. The intensity of the quake, which gauges the actual effect of a seismic event, measured 4 in Tainan and Chiayi County on Taiwan's seven-tier intensity scale, the data showed. The quake had an intensity of 3 in Chiayi City and County, and Yunlin County, while it was measured as 2 in Kaohsiung, Nantou County, Changhua County, Taitung County and offshore Penghu County, the data showed. There were no immediate reports of
‘DENIAL DEFENSE’: The US would increase its military presence with uncrewed ships, and submarines, while boosting defense in the Indo-Pacific, a Pete Hegseth memo said The US is reorienting its military strategy to focus primarily on deterring a potential Chinese invasion of Taiwan, a memo signed by US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth showed. The memo also called on Taiwan to increase its defense spending. The document, known as the “Interim National Defense Strategic Guidance,” was distributed this month and detailed the national defense plans of US President Donald Trump’s administration, an article in the Washington Post said on Saturday. It outlines how the US can prepare for a potential war with China and defend itself from threats in the “near abroad,” including Greenland and the Panama
The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) is maintaining close ties with Beijing, the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) said yesterday, hours after a new round of Chinese military drills in the Taiwan Strait began. Political parties in a democracy have a responsibility to be loyal to the nation and defend its sovereignty, DPP spokesman Justin Wu (吳崢) told a news conference in Taipei. His comments came hours after Beijing announced via Chinese state media that the Chinese People’s Liberation Army’s Eastern Theater Command was holding large-scale drills simulating a multi-pronged attack on Taiwan. Contrary to the KMT’s claims that it is staunchly anti-communist, KMT Deputy
RESPONSE: The government would investigate incidents of Taiwanese entertainers in China promoting CCP propaganda online in contravention of the law, the source said Taiwanese entertainers living in China who are found to have contravened cross-strait regulations or collaborated with the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) could be subject to fines, a source said on Sunday. Several Taiwanese entertainers have posted on the social media platform Sina Weibo saying that Taiwan “must be returned” to China, and sharing news articles from Chinese state media. In response, the Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) has asked the Ministry of Culture to investigate whether the entertainers had contravened any laws, and asked for them to be questioned upon their return to Taiwan, an official familiar with the matter said. To curb repeated
RSS