Tainan senior arrested after arson, axe attack and ambulance theft

Tainan, May 3 (CNA) An 83-year-old man was arrested in Tainan Sunday after setting fire to a relative's home, attacking three people with a hatchet, and then stealing an ambulance in an attempted escape, local authorities said.

The Tainan City Fire Bureau said it received a call at 11 a.m. Sunday regarding a loud argument and a person possibly carrying weapons at a townhouse on Xinle Road in the city's South District, and immediately dispatched personnel to the scene.

Upon arriving, firefighters found smoke pouring out of the rolling steel door on the building's ground floor.

As they went inside to put out the fire, however, they were attacked by a man wielding a hatchet, with two emergency personnel and one female resident of the home suffering injuries, the fire bureau said.

Following the attack, the suspect, later identified as an 83-year-old man surnamed Hsin (辛), jumped into an empty ambulance outside the building and attempted to escape.

Hsin was trailed by police into Yongkang District before being pulled over, arrested, and taken back to a police station for questioning.

Local media reports said Hsin brandished his hatchet upon being approached by officers, but was quickly subdued with pepper spray and batons.

According to the Tainan Fire Bureau, one firefighter suffered an unspecified head injury in the attack, while a volunteer firefighter and a female resident of the home, surnamed Huang (黃), each suffered scalp lacerations.

All three victims remained fully conscious and were taken to National Cheng Kung University Hospital for treatment.

Following a preliminary investigation, police found Hsin attacked Huang, his wife's younger sister, after traveling to her home on Sunday morning and getting into an argument.

The argument was reportedly prompted by Huang's plan to move abroad and to sell a home in which Hsin and his wife currently live, local media reported.