TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — Seven Vietnamese undocumented workers were arrested on Monday (Oct. 4) after they engaged in a drunken brawl on a Taipei street.

At a press briefing on Tuesday (Oct. 5), Kao Chuan-en (高詮恩), the head of the Taipei City Police Department's Da'an Precinct, said that his station received a 110 call at 3:30 a.m. on Monday morning reporting that a fight had broken out among Vietnamese migrant workers on Linjiang Street, reported CNA. Officers quickly arrived at the scene, but the suspects had already scattered.

After conducting an investigation, police were able to locate two men surnamed Nguyen (阮). When they questioned the men, they claimed that they had been assaulted by five other Vietnamese nationals after a verbal dispute had erupted while dining and consuming alcohol next to a street vendor.

Five suspects apprehended by officers. (Taipei Police Department photo)

Officers then reviewed surveillance camera footage of the area and discovered that the five men had fled the scene via three different routes. Police soon pinpointed a sublet apartment suite on the fifth floor of an alley off Jilin Road.

A team of police officers together with National Immigration Agency personnel raided that apartment at 10 a.m. on Monday morning while the five suspects were still in an intoxicated state. After reviewing their records, police found that all seven Vietnamese nationals involved in the altercation had overstayed their visas.

Police then transferred the suspects to the Prosecutor's Office to be investigated for participating in a fight involving many people and violating the Immigration Act (入出國及移民法).