Three people were killed and at least six others were injured on Friday in Taipei, Taiwan’s capital, when a man threw smoke grenades in a crowded train station and lunged at bystanders with a large knife. The assailant later died after fleeing and then falling or jumping from a building, the police said.
The man, dressed in black shorts, shirt and cap, appeared at Taipei Main Station in the late afternoon and he threw smoke grenades in an underground concourse packed with commuters. Video taken by onlookers showed heavy smoke filling part of the station as people took shelter inside a cafe.
Later, the man walked about half a mile to a crowded retail area, Zhongshan. There, he threw more smoke grenades. Brandishing a knife, he walked through a crowd and then entered a store, where alarmed shoppers ran out onto the street. The assailant died after falling from the sixth floor of the store, a spokesman for the Taipei police force said.
One of those killed, a man in his 50s, was stabbed at the station, and another victim, also a man, was fatally stabbed in Zhongshan, Taiwan’s premier, Cho Jung-tai, told reporters. The authorities later said that a third man had died at a hospital from stab wounds.
Taiwan is a generally safe place, and eruptions of violence are rare. The episode prompted an outpouring of media attention and statements from politicians urging calm and vigilance.
Premier Cho said that it would take time to establish the man’s motives for his attack. Investigators in Taoyuan, a city near Taipei, later said he appeared to come from Taoyuan and had been being sought for evading military service, according to Wu Yi-ming, a spokesman for the Supreme Prosecutors’ Office in Taipei.
Additional reporting by Amy Chang Chien in Taipei.
Chris Buckley, the chief China correspondent for The Times, reports on China and Taiwan from Taipei, focused on politics, social change and security and military issues.
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