CRIME
Police hunt for pepper sprayer
Police are still searching for a suspect who released pepper spray inside the Taipei MRT twice over the past two weeks, the Taipei Police Department said. Travelers at Taipei Main Station reported a pungent scent in the station’s underground shopping area at 8:40pm on Monday, police said in a statement. Surveillance footage showed a man spraying the chemicals behind his back, they said. The same man is believed to have released pepper spray as he walked along the Blue Line platform in the station on 8:15pm on March 17, police said, adding that they are trying to establish a motive.
TRAFFIC
Butterflies close freeway lane
The outer northbound lane of a section of Formosa Freeway (Freeway No. 3) was closed until 1pm yesterday to protect large swarms of purple crow butterflies heading north as part of their seasonal migration. Chen Jui-hsiang (陳瑞祥), head of the Taiwan Purple Crow Butterfly Ecological Preservation Association, said the National Freeway Bureau set up protective netting 4m high and 1,100m long along northbound lanes between the freeway’s 251km and 253km markers. It also closed the outer northbound lane along that stretch in Yunlin County’s Linnei Township (林內) at 9am yesterday, as more than 250 migrating butterflies per minute were spotted, Chen said. Later, at about 10am, as many as 1,080 butterflies per minute — the most so far this year — flew along the freeway heading north, Chen said.
SOCIETY
None hurt in factory blaze
No one was injured in a fire that broke out at a factory run by major electronics manufacturer Wistron Corp in the Hsinchu Science Park (新竹科學園區) late on Monday, based on information from the Hsinchu City Fire Bureau and Hsinchu Science Park Bureau. The fire bureau said it received a report about the blaze at 10:22pm, and along with the Hsinchu County Fire Bureau dispatched 23 fire trucks and 112 firefighters to the scene. The fire was put out at 2am, and none of the 464 people evacuated from the factory were hurt. Firefighters found that an outdoor air-conditioning unit on the top floor of the plant had caught fire, the city fire bureau said, without offering further details about what caused the blaze. Data monitored by the science park and the city’s Environmental Protection Bureau indicated that air pollution from the fire had quickly fallen back to normal levels by later yesterday morning.
SOCIETY
Invoice lottery announced
The winning number for the NT$10 million (US$313,519) special prize in the January-February uniform invoice lottery is 16620962, the Ministry of Finance announced on Monday. The winning number for the NT$2 million grand prize is 50008017, while the three numbers for the first prize of NT$200,000 are 73705743, 90315047 and 10604429. The holders of receipts whose serial numbers match the last seven digits of any of the first-prize numbers win NT$40,000, while those with invoices with serial numbers matching the last six digits win NT$10,000. Other prizes are NT$4,000 for receipts with the last five digits of any of the first-prize numbers, NT$1,000 for receipts with the last four digits and NT$200 for invoices with the last three digits. Those holding prize-winning receipts can claim their winnings from Saturday next week to July 5, the ministry said.
TRAGEDY: An expert said that the incident was uncommon as the chance of a ground crew member being sucked into an IDF engine was ‘minuscule’ A master sergeant yesterday morning died after she was sucked into an engine during a routine inspection of a fighter jet at an air base in Taichung, the Air Force Command Headquarters said. The officer, surnamed Hu (胡), was conducting final landing checks at Ching Chuan Kang (清泉崗) Air Base when she was pulled into the jet’s engine for unknown reasons, the air force said in a news release. She was transported to a hospital for emergency treatment, but could not be revived, it said. The air force expressed its deepest sympathies over the incident, and vowed to work with authorities as they
A tourist who was struck and injured by a train in a scenic area of New Taipei City’s Pingsi District (平溪) on Monday might be fined for trespassing on the tracks, the Railway Police Bureau said yesterday. The New Taipei City Fire Department said it received a call at 4:37pm on Monday about an incident in Shifen (十分), a tourist destination on the Pingsi Railway Line. After arriving on the scene, paramedics treated a woman in her 30s for a 3cm to 5cm laceration on her head, the department said. She was taken to a hospital in Keelung, it said. Surveillance footage from a
BITTERLY COLD: The inauguration ceremony for US president-elect Donald Trump has been moved indoors due to cold weather, with the new venue lacking capacity A delegation of cross-party lawmakers from Taiwan, led by Legislative Speaker Han Kuo-yu (韓國瑜), for the inauguration of US president-elect Donald Trump, would not be able to attend the ceremony, as it is being moved indoors due to forecasts of intense cold weather in Washington tomorrow. The inauguration ceremony for Trump and US vice president-elect JD Vance is to be held inside the Capitol Rotunda, which has a capacity of about 2,000 people. A person familiar with the issue yesterday said although the outdoor inauguration ceremony has been relocated, Taiwan’s legislative delegation has decided to head off to Washington as scheduled. The delegation
Another wave of cold air would affect Taiwan starting from Friday and could evolve into a continental cold mass, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday. Temperatures could drop below 10°C across Taiwan on Monday and Tuesday next week, CWA forecaster Chang Chun-yao (張竣堯) said. Seasonal northeasterly winds could bring rain, he said. Meanwhile, due to the continental cold mass and radiative cooling, it would be cold in northern and northeastern Taiwan today and tomorrow, according to the CWA. From last night to this morning, temperatures could drop below 10°C in northern Taiwan, it said. A thin coat of snow
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