Updated Feb. 13, 2025, 5:30 pm
TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — A suspected gas explosion at a Taichung department store on Thursday morning injured 20 and killed at least four, a death toll that is likely to rise.
The Taichung Prosecutors Office confirmed the fatalities in a statement on Thursday afternoon. The office said the explosion severely damaged the Shin Kong Mistukoshi in Taichung’s Xitun District.
CNA reported the Taichung Fire Department as saying that four of the 20 people injured were on life support. Three of these people were sent to the hospital and one man is said to be in a grave condition and unlikely to recover.
According to the department, two of the four people on life support were on the department store's 11th and 12th floors during the explosion. The others were on the footpath at the time of the incident.
Taichung authorities issued an emergency notice saying a gas explosion occurred at the store around 11.30 am. At 2 pm, Taichung Fire Department Chief Sun Fu-yu (孫福佑) told reporters there was construction work on the floor where the incident occurred and investigations are underway to determine if it was a gas explosion.
Footage posted to social media shortly after the incident shows a large explosion sending debris flying from the Shin Kong Mitsukoshi building’s 12th floor. Other social media users posted footage from inside the building showing the roof collapsed in an area with dining tables.
In a message posted to Facebook at around 2 pm, President Lai Ching-te (賴清德) said the Cabinet had spoken with emergency and medical authorities about the explosion. Lai hoped the injured would recover.
Taichung Mayor Lu Shiow-yen (盧秀燕) said in a social media post that authorities are doing their best to rescue the injured while asking the public to give them space. She visited the injured at two hospitals after going to the site and said she had asked Shin Kong Mistukoshi to provide compensation to the victims.
Lu said three members of a Macao family were injured in the blast as they were passing the store. She said that a grandfather and grandmother lost heart function and a 2-year-old was seriously injured.
Taipei Mayor Chiang Wan-an (蔣萬安) canceled a planned visit to Lantern Festival festivities in the wake of the blast and offered assistance to Taichung authorities. Kaohsiung's Fire Department also said it had offered its Taichung counterparts assistance.
A Taichung woman surnamed Hsu (許) told the BBC’s Chinese service that she was on the Shin Kong building's 14th floor during the explosion and thought it was an earthquake. She said the power immediately went out in the building and she escaped through debris in darkness.
Other reports said that people near the scene said they smelled gas before the explosion. When asked about this, Taichung prosecutors said that a gas leak was being investigated and that manslaughter charges had not been ruled out.
