Shin Kong Group (新光集團) president Richard Wu (吳昕陽) yesterday said the company would take responsibility for an apparent gas explosion that resulted in four deaths and 26 injuries at Shin Kong Mitsukoshi Zhonggang Store in Taichung yesterday.
The Taichung Fire Bureau at 11:33am yesterday received a report saying that people were injured after an explosion at the department store on Section 3 of Taiwan Boulevard in Taichung’s Situn District (西屯).
It sent 56 ambulances and 136 paramedics to the site, with the people injured sent to Cheng Ching Hospital’s Chung Kang Branch, Wuri Lin Shin Hospital, Taichung Veterans General Hospital or Chung Shan Medical University Hospital.
Photo courtesy of a Taichung resident
Fire Bureau Director-General Sun Fu-yu (孫福佑) said that the incident was allegedly caused by a gas explosion on the department store’s 12th floor.
Renovation work on the 12th floor was ongoing when the blast occurred, but whether it was the cause remains to be investigated, he said.
Wu arrived at the site and expressed concern to people who were affected, saying that Shin Kong Group would assist with the investigation and take accountability for providing compensation for the people who were injured.
Photo courtesy of a Taichung resident
The company’s leadership yesterday offered NT$1 million (US$30,486) in compensation to each of the families of the people killed, and visited 25 injured people in hospitals to provide consolation money.
Deputy Minister of Health and Welfare Lin Ching-yi (林靜儀) said that the ministry has asked the Taichung Health Bureau to activate the mechanism for multiple casualty incidents.
The ministry also asked the Regional Emergency Medical Operations Center’s Taichung Branch to assist with referral of patients, she said.
Photo: Liao Yao-tung, Taipei Times
The injured people would first be sent to emergency rooms with triage performed on them to divert them to suitable hospitals, Lin said, calling on the public not to rubberneck.
A family of seven from Macau passing by the department store was struck by falling debris from the building due to the explosion.
The debris killed the family’s grandparents and seriously injured the two-year-old granddaughter, with the rest of the family incurring lighter injuries.
Mainland Affairs Council spokesman Liang Wen-chieh (梁文傑) said the council’s Department of Hong Kong, Macau, Inner Mongolia and Tibetan Affairs has sent personnel to Taichung to learn more about the situation.
The council would report the incident to the Macanese government and take proactive measures to help the family, including assisting their relatives to travel to Taiwan if needed, he said.
The Taichung District Prosecutors’ Office said a task force of six prosecutors has been set up to collect evidence and conduct an investigation in collaboration with the police and the fire bureau.
Taichung Labor Affairs Bureau Director Chiu Yi-chuan (邱怡川) said the initial investigation was conducted based on witnesses’ testimony, as the department store’s 12th and nearby floors were still locked down.
The incident is suspected to be a dust explosion, given that fire sources such as welding activities were absent and there were no flames after the blast, he said.
The cause of the incident cannot be confirmed before the results of the fire bureau’s investigation, Chiu said, adding that the ministry would look into whether the construction site on the 12th floor had fire-proof and explosion-proof equipment.
An order to suspend the construction has been issued to the department store, he said.
The company undertaking the construction work would be fined between NT$30,000 and NT$300,000 if the site is found to have contravened the Occupational Safety and Health Act (職業安全衛生法), he said.
Additional reporting by Lu Yun-feng, Tsai Shu-yuan
and Su Chin-feng
Intelligence agents have recorded 510,000 instances of “controversial information” being spread online by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) so far this year, the National Security Bureau (NSB) said in a report yesterday, as it warned of artificial intelligence (AI) being employed to generate destabilizing misinformation. The bureau submitted a written report to the Legislative Yuan in preparation for National Security Bureau Director-General Tsai Ming-yen’s (蔡明彥) appearance before the Foreign Affairs and National Defense Committee today. The CCP has been using cognitive warfare to divide Taiwanese society by commenting on controversial issues such as Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co’s (TSMC, 台積電) investments in the
INVESTIGATION: The case is the latest instance of a DPP figure being implicated in an espionage network accused of allegedly leaking information to Chinese intelligence Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) member Ho Jen-chieh (何仁傑) was detained and held incommunicado yesterday on suspicion of spying for China during his tenure as assistant to then-minister of foreign affairs Joseph Wu (吳釗燮). The Taipei District Prosecutors’ Office said Ho was implicated during its investigation into alleged spying activities by former Presidential Office consultant Wu Shang-yu (吳尚雨). Prosecutors said there is reason to believe Ho breached the National Security Act (國家安全法) by leaking classified Ministry of Foreign Affairs information to Chinese intelligence. Following interrogation, prosecutors petitioned the Taipei District Court to detain Ho, citing concerns over potential collusion or tampering of evidence. The
‘COMPREHENSIVE PLAN’: Lin Chia-lung said that the government was ready to talk about a variety of issues, including investment in and purchases from the US The National Stabilization Fund (NSF) yesterday announced that it would step in to staunch stock market losses for the ninth time in the nation’s history. An NSF board meeting, originally scheduled for Monday next week, was moved to yesterday after stocks plummeted in the wake of US President Donald Trump’s announcement of 32 percent tariffs on Taiwan on Wednesday last week. Board members voted to support the stock market with the NT$500 billion (US$15.15 billion) fund, with injections of funds to begin as soon as today. The NSF in 2000 injected NT$120 billion to stabilize stocks, the most ever. The lowest amount it
NEGOTIATIONS: Taiwan has good relations with Washington and the outlook for the negotiations looks promising, Minister of Economic Affairs J.W. Kuo said Taiwan’s GDP growth this year is expected to decrease by 0.43 to 1.61 percentage points due to the effects of US tariffs, National Development Council (NDC) Minister Paul Liu (劉鏡清) said at a meeting of the legislature’s Economics Committee in Taipei yesterday, citing a preliminary estimate by a private research institution. Taiwan’s economy would be significantly affected by the 32 percent “reciprocal” tariffs slapped by the US, which took effect yesterday, Liu said, adding that GDP growth could fall below 3 percent and potentially even dip below 2 percent to 1.53 percent this year. The council has commissioned another institution
RSS