News Digest

Six inmates in Taiwan hostage standoff commit suicide

Six prisoners at a southern Taiwan jail committed suicide on Thursday, ending a standoff after they took several staff hostage to complain about unfair trials and demand their freedom. The Justice Ministry said authorities had rejected the inmates’ demands for safe exit from the prison during the hours-long standoff after the inmates seized weapons. By the pre-dawn hours on Thursday, the inmates had released all hostages except the warden. They then shot themselves, and the warden was able to walk free, Deputy Justice Minister Chen Ming-tang said in a televised interview.

We tried to use all kinds of means to persuade them to release the hostages so the incident could come to a peaceful end and to prevent an unfortunate situation.

Deputy Justice Minister Chen Ming-tang

The incident started when the inmates - serving long sentences for burglary, murder and drug crimes - took four rifles, six handguns and more than 200 bullets from the prison’s armory, the ministry said. The ringleader, Cheng Li-te, belonged to the notorious mafia-type organization Bamboo Union and was serving a 28 ½-year sentence for homicide, the ministry said. The other five inmates were serving sentences ranging from 25 years to life.