TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — Taoyuan Metro Corporation received an anonymous bomb threat on Friday (Feb. 3) along with a demand that Taiwan’s authorities refuse to meet the Swiss delegation of lawmakers planning to arrive on Sunday (Feb. 5).
The individual or group behind the threat claimed that barrels of fuel would be ignited in an attack on passengers on the Taoyuan Airport MRT line at the Taipei Main Station (A1) terminal. Police have been put on notice and will be increasing patrols and safety checks on all MRT lines in Taipei and Taoyuan over the next week.
The message called for the central government to refuse entry to the Swiss delegation, which will arrive on Sunday for a six-day visit. The message did not specify an exact time, but threatened to carry out an attack while the delegation is in Taiwan.
The threat was received in the form of an online message to the Taoyuan MRT website through its customer service response form. Authorities identified the IP address of the sender as coming from overseas, but have not yet identified the sender, reported UDN.
A security check was promptly carried out Friday. Police found nothing abnormal at the station A1, but authorities reassured the public they would step up security measures out of an abundance of caution.
Taipei MRT received threats on Jan. 27 and Jan. 28, which threatened to ignite explosives and cause a mass casualty incident at an unspecified station. That individual, who is not in Taiwan, was quickly identified by the authorities as a "young Chinese citizen who studied in Taiwan."
At the time of publication, it had not been determined if the most recent incident was related to the previous threats, but it is possible they were made by the same group or individual.
