Suspect arrested for MRI slashing attack

The New Taipei City District Court has approved a prosecutor’s request to arrest a woman who attacked a high school student with a knife on a subway train in Taipei late Friday.

The court said in a statement released Saturday that she was being arrested on suspicion of attempted murder and the possibility that she might harm others or attempt to escape.

New Taipei City police said the incident occurred near Xinpu MRT station around 10:17 p.m. on Friday when a passenger was injured on a Dingpu-bound Bannan Line train.

Before police arrived at the station to arrest the suspect, a woman surnamed Wang (王) who is in her early 40s, she had already been overpowered by four male passengers, including an off-duty Taipei police officer, police said.

The injured student, who sustained a three-centimeter cut on his face, was taken to Far Eastern Memorial Hospital for treatment and is in a stable condition after being bandaged by paramedics at the scene, according to police.

The 17-year-old student said he did not know Wang, police said, adding that Wang’s family had requested that the suspect be charged with attempted murder.

Witnesses wrote on social media that many people screamed, ran and fell into the train car during the attack, making the scene “resemble a zombie movie.”

Wang is a repeat offender who has previously been involved in altercations at MRT stations, a Chinese-language newspaper said United Daily News said.

She reportedly had auditory hallucinations and allegedly attacked the student because she suspected he had spoken badly about her, the newspaper said.