Chang Wen, Taoyuan, Taiwan man launched stabbing and grenade attack in Taipei metro station and shopping mall leaving 3 dead, 11 injured before jumping to his death. Assailant had failed to turn up for recent military service and was pre-occupied with 2014 stabbing attack at an underground station.
A 27 year old assailant caused havoc in the central district of Taipei in Taiwan, Friday night after setting off smoke grenades in a crowded street before proceeding to indiscriminately attack pedestrians, leaving at least three people dead and injuring 11 others. The suspect later fell to his death from a department store building.
Police said that the suspect was declared dead at a hospital after jumping from the building’s sixth floor, the Central News Agency reported.
Planned orchestrated stabbing and grenade attack during Friday rush hour
Chang Wen, 27, from the northern city of Taoyuan, was captured on footage throwing smoke grenades near an underground exit of the Taipei Main metro station, close to the city’s main train station, and randomly attacking people with a ‘sharp object,’ sending pedestrians running, according to local media reports.
The assailant then headed north to a popular shopping district, where he threw smoke grenades and stabbed multiple people on the first and fourth floors of the Eslite Spectrum Nanxi department store, primarily in the neck, the news agency said, citing police.
Moments later the suspect is thought to have intentionally taken his own life after leaping from the sixth floor of the department store building as police closed in on the man.
In between the two scenes, Wen is alleged to have taken an underground path to a hotel, where he fetched some ‘lethal weapon’ — or some kind of edged weapon — before showing up at a road outside the Zhongshan metro station, near a shopping mall where he proceeded to stab at passerby’s while making his way up the department store.
‘The suspect wore a mask and deliberately threw away multiple petrol bombs and smoke bombs, and then randomly attacked people … causing many injuries,’ said Premier Cho Jung-tai in a translated Facebook post.
Police said they were yet to find any accomplice and were investigating possible motives. Police said they recovered some ‘lethal weapons’ in both the suspect’s rental home in Taipei and the hotel room where he had stayed for three nights near Zhongshan.
❗️⚠️🇹🇼 – A 27-year-old Taiwanese man identified by authorities as Chang carried out an attack in central Taipei. The incident began around 5 p.m. when he threw multiple smoke grenades near exits at Taipei Main Station, causing panic and initial injuries from smoke inhalation and… pic.twitter.com/3iy51kUFXE
— 🔥🗞The Informant (@theinformant_x) December 19, 2025
Lone wolf attack in Taipei
Video footage showed the suspect wearing a gas mask and clad in black, dropping at least two smoke grenades at the Taipei Main metro station. He was later seen near Eslite and entering the department store while attacking passersby’s.
Local hospitals reported three deaths from the attacks. CNA reported on Saturday that 11 others were initially hospitalized. Six of them remained in hospitals, with two in the intensive care unit, the outlet stated.
Local media reported a 57-year-old man attempting to stop the suspect at the metro station’s exit, only to be fatally stabbed to death. Taipei Metro said that a staffer was hospitalized after he inhaled excessive smoke while responding to the attack.
Another man died after he was attacked near the department store, according to EBC News.
A female victim told EBC that she was hit by the suspect outside the department store when she was waiting for her daughter.
‘It did not feel like a slash — it felt more like being hit,’ she said. ‘Then it really hurt.’
When she turned around, she said she saw ‘people lying on the ground and needing first aid because they were bleeding.’
Wen fatally wounded another person on the fourth floor of the department store building before jumped to their death.
Was 27 year old assailant motivated by 2014 mass stabbing at Taipei underground attack?
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 over the attack.
Chang failed to report for reserve military training in November 2024, and was wanted for violating the law on mandatory military service, prosecutors stated. He apparently didn’t report a change in household registration, resulting in nondelivery of his reserve military service summons.
‘The suspect hasn’t contacted his family for more than two years,’ prosecutors said. ‘They said the suspect has been interested in guns and weapons since he was young.’
The last major incident of this kind happened in 2014, when a 21-year-old went on a stabbing attack at an underground train in Taipei leaving four dead and 24 injured. The perpetrator of that attack was executed two years later. Authorities indicated Wen had searched the episode prior to Friday’s attack.
