Japanese tourist recalls desperate effort to save Taipei stabbing victim

Taipei, Dec. 21 (CNA) A Japanese tourist has recalled feeling helpless as he attempted to prevent a scooter rider from bleeding to death during a mass stabbing attack in Taipei.

On Friday, 27-year-old Chang Wen (張文) carried out a series of indiscriminate stabbings inside MRT Taipei Main Station and outside the nearby Eslite Spectrum Nanxi department store.

The incident resulted in four deaths, including the perpetrator, who fell to his death from the six-story department store's roof while being pursued by police.

Kouta Kinoshita, a Japanese writer who previously worked as a TV news journalist, said in a post on X that he was on the first floor of the department store when he saw a man holding a knife running into the building.

As he joined the crowds running out of the store, Chang followed and then stabbed two people on the street, including a male scooter rider, Kinoshita said.

Kinoshita said that, as he was the only person near the rider, he rushed over and tried to staunch the man's wound using his hand.

However, without an emergency kit, the by-then unconscious man continued to lose blood, a situation that Kinoshita said left him "heartbroken."

The man, a 37-year-old surnamed Hsiao (蕭), was later pronounced dead at a nearby hospital.

In an interview with TVBS News on Saturday, Kinoshita said that despite his direct experience of the attacks, he did not believe visiting Taiwan had become more dangerous, describing the country as still "relatively safe."