Court approves detention of suspect in MRT knife attack

Taipei, Nov. 10 (CNA) The New Taipei District Court has approved a motion by prosecutors to detain a woman who randomly attacked a senior high school student with a knife on a Taipei Metro train late Friday.

In a statement issued late Saturday, the court said it approved the woman's detention due to her being a suspect in an attempted murder as well as the possibility that she could harm others or attempt to flee.

According to New Taipei police, the incident occurred near MRT Xinpu Station at around 10:17 p.m. Friday, when a passenger was injured on a Bannan Line train heading toward Dingpu.

Before police arrived at the station to arrest the suspect, who is in her early 40s and surnamed Wang (王), she had already been subdued by four male passengers, one of whom was an off-duty Taipei police officer.

The injured student, who sustained a roughly 3-centimeter cut on his face, was taken to Far Eastern Memorial Hospital for treatment and is in a stable condition after being bandaged by emergency medical personnel at the scene, police said.

According to the 17-year-old student, he did not know Wang, police said.

After making a statement early Saturday morning, the victim's family requested that the suspect be charged with attempted murder, police said.

Witnesses said on social media that many people were screaming, running and falling in the train car during the attack, making the scene "resemble a zombie movie."

According to Chinese-language newspaper United Daily News, Wang is a repeat offender who had previously been involved in arguments at MRT stations.

She is suspected of suffering from auditory hallucinations and allegedly attacked the student after suspecting that he had spoken ill of her, the newspaper reported.