Image taken from Vientiane Times Online's Facebook page

Taipei, Oct. 16 (CNA) The Foreign Ministry confirmed Monday that a Taiwanese businessman has been killed in Laos, saying that Taiwan's representative office in neighboring Vietnam has sent staff to Laos to provide assistance to the family of the victim.

The victim, who was shot Oct. 7 outside his soon-to-be-opened shopping mall in the capital Vientiane, was a Taiwanese national living in Laos identified as Su Wang-tien (蘇文天), aged 60, according to the English-language Vientiane Times.

Su was reportedly shot while parking behind the mall by two men riding a motorcycle, who shot him about 12 times as he was opening the rear door of his car to help his mother out, the newspaper reported.

Foreign Ministry spokesman Li Hsien-chang (李憲章) confirmed the death and said the ministry and the representative office in Vietnam, which is responsible for Taiwan-related affairs in Laos, are following the case.

Lee reminded Taiwanese businessmen in Laos to pay attention to their personal safety.

Su had spent decades in Laos and was about to open the new shopping mall by the end of the year, according to the Vientiane Times.

Laos police have formed a special task force to investigate the case and suspect that a business dispute was the reason for the killing, according to the paper.

Police said they had found the motorcycle used in the killing abandoned near a temple, with evidence purportedly showing that the killers might have been foreigners, the newspaper said without elaborating.

Meanwhile, a business leader in Laos cited local media reports as saying that the killers might have fled to neighboring Thailand.

(By Elaine Hou, Liu Te-chan and Evelyn Kao)
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