At least nine people were injured in Taiwan’s capital on Friday after a knifeman went on a violent rampage after throwing smoke grenades near a subway station.
The suspect then jumped from a building to avoid arrest, Taipei’s mayor Chiang Wan-an said, and was later pronounced dead in hospital.
Dramatic footage showed how the man threw smoke grenades at the Taipei Main subway station near the city’s main train station, sending pedestrians running.
The unnamed man then rode the subway one stop, exited the station and threw more smoke grenades on the street, according to footage carried by broadcaster EBC.
He was holding a knife and wielding it at pedestrians before running into a shop, causing people to scream, the video showed.
In a separate clip, paramedics can be seen tending to an injured person on the floor of a train station.
Mayor Chiang said four of the wounded were in a serious condition.
Taiwanese Premier Cho Jung-tai said that one of the wounded was a pedestrian who fell to the ground after being attacked, and that person was already in cardiac arrest before being sent to a hospital.
The smoke caused respiratory injuries to another person.
Cho said that authorities were still investigating the background of the suspect. They have requested police to increase security in train and subway stations across the island.
The terrifying incident comes a month after ten people were hospitalized in the UK following a mass stabbing attack on a London-bound train.
The attack took place as the Doncaster to London King’s Cross train headed south toward Huntingdon, a market town a few miles northwest of the university city of Cambridge.
Emergency services, including armed police and air ambulances, responded quickly as the train drew into Huntingdon.
The attack was contained swiftly after the train arrived at the station, and police officers wearing forensic suits, with a police dog, could be seen on the platform.
