Two people who dined at a restaurant in Taipei’s Far Eastern Department Store Xinyi A13 last week have died, while four are in intensive care, the Taipei Department of Health said yesterday.
All of the outlets of Malaysian vegetarian restaurant franchise Polam Kopitiam have been ordered to close pending an investigation after 11 people became ill due to suspected food poisoning, city officials told a news conference in Taipei.
The first fatality, a 39-year-old man who ate at the restaurant on Friday last week, died of kidney failure two days later at the city’s Mackay Memorial Hospital.
Photo: Tien Yu-hua, Taipei Times
A 66-year-old man who dined at the venue on Tuesday last week died of multiple organ failure at Shin Kong Wu Ho-Su Memorial Hospital at 11:35am yesterday, becoming the second fatality from the mystery illness.
Tri-Service General Hospital yesterday reported that a 53-year-old woman who ate at the restaurant on Friday last week is receiving critical care for acidosis, septic shock and liver failure, department Commissioner Chen Yen-yuan (陳彥元) said.
Every customer of the restaurant who fell ill had consumed flat noodle dishes and showed symptoms within 12 hours of eating, he said.
Their condition progressed rapidly, with an acute decline in liver function, fulminant hepatitis, liver failure and septic shock, Chen said.
Taipei Mayor Chiang Wan-an (蔣萬安) said on the sidelines of a separate event that health officials on Sunday were alerted by their New Taipei City counterparts of a suspected food poisoning incident after one of the ill diners received treatment at a hospital there.
That person was the first to die in connection to the case.
The Taipei Department of Health immediately inspected the venue to collect samples and ordered improvements to be made to sanitation standards, Chiang said.
The Taipei City Government on Tuesday ordered the restaurant’s Xinyi District (信義) venue to close and has since extended the order to other branches of the chain, all of which are in the city, he said.
However, investigators did not discover any of the bacteria commonly associated with food poisoning in the food samples, he said.
When asked to comment on whether the restaurant’s food could have been deliberately tampered with, Chiang said the possibility of the poisoning being the result of a malicious act has not been ruled out.
The Food and Drug Administration (FDA), the Centers for Disease Control and law enforcement officials are involved in the investigation and every possibility is being explored, he said.
Meanwhile, the Taipei District Prosecutors’ Office said it had seized surveillance footage and collected evidence at the restaurant’s premises early yesterday with the help of police and health officials.
It has assigned a special prosecutor to oversee the investigation.
On Tuesday evening, FDA personnel and Taipei City Government officials collected additional samples of food that have a high risk of contamination from the restaurant, FDA Director-General Wu Shou-mei (吳秀梅) said.
Testing of the samples — which included vegetables, mushrooms, herbs and sauces — would take at least two weeks to complete, as microbial cultures must be grown to perform the procedure, she said.
Although the restaurant passed an inspection two years ago, Taipei officials found multiple code breaches, including cockroach droppings, improperly stored kitchen knives and missing employee health records, she said.
Last night, the Ministry of Health and Welfare held a meeting with specialists, who suggested that pathogens such as "bongkrekic acid" could be involved, but Taiwan needs to acquire the standard substance for testing it, Deputy Minister of Health and Welfare Victor Wang (王必勝) said.
The experts would not rule out any possibilities, and forensic autopsies would be performed today, he said.
Additional reporting by Chiu Chih-jou
TRAGEDY STRIKES TAIPEI: The suspect died after falling off a building after he threw smoke grenades into Taipei Main Station and went on a killing spree in Zhongshan A 27-year-old suspect allegedly threw smoke grenades in Taipei Main Station and then proceeded to Zhongshan MRT Station in a random killing spree that resulted in the death of the suspect and two other civilians, and seven injured, including one in critical condition, as of press time last night. The suspect, identified as a man surnamed Chang Wen (張文), allegedly began the attack at Taipei Main Station, the Taipei Fire Department said, adding that it received a report at 5:24pm that smoke grenades had been thrown in the station. One man in his 50s was rushed to hospital after a cardiac arrest
SAFETY FIRST: Double the number of police were deployed at the Taipei Marathon, while other cities released plans to bolster public event safety Authorities across Taiwan have stepped up security measures ahead of Christmas and New Year events, following a knife and smoke bomb attack in Taipei on Friday that left four people dead and 11 injured. In a bid to prevent potential copycat incidents, police deployments have been expanded for large gatherings, transport hubs, and other crowded public spaces, according to official statements from police and city authorities. Taipei Mayor Chiang Wan-an (蔣萬安) said the city has “comprehensively raised security readiness” in crowded areas, increased police deployments with armed officers, and intensified patrols during weekends and nighttime hours. For large-scale events, security checkpoints and explosives
A car bomb killed a senior Russian general in southern Moscow yesterday morning, the latest high-profile army figure to be blown up in a blast that came just hours after Russian and Ukrainian delegates held separate talks in Miami on a plan to end the war. Kyiv has not commented on the incident, but Russian investigators said they were probing whether the blast was “linked” to “Ukrainian special forces.” The attack was similar to other assassinations of generals and pro-war figures that have either been claimed, or are widely believed to have been orchestrated, by Ukraine. Russian Lieutenant General Fanil Sarvarov, 56, head
PUBLIC SAFETY: The premier said that security would be tightened in transport hubs, while President Lai commended the public for their bravery The government is to deploy more police, including rapid response units, in crowded public areas to ensure a swift response to any threats, President William Lai (賴清德) said yesterday after a knife attack killed three people and injured 11 in Taipei the previous day. Lai made the remarks following a briefing by the National Police Agency on the progress of the investigation, saying that the attack underscored the importance of cooperation in public security between the central and local governments. The attack unfolded in the early evening on Friday around Taipei Main Station’s M7 exit and later near the Taipei MRT’s Zhongshan
RSS