TAIPEI: A car ploughed into a group of mostly students outside a school in Taiwan on Monday (May 19), killing at least three people and injuring 12, police said.
The incident happened near Taipei at around 4pm when a car driven by a 78-year-old man ran a red light and collided with three motorbikes and a bicycle, before hitting the students and adults.
Videos shared by police show people doing chest compressions on victims lying on the street, emergency personnel carrying away the injured, and motorbikes and bicycles on their sides.
Sheets of paper and other debris were strewn across the intersection.
“For unknown reasons, the vehicle accelerated suddenly,” police said in a statement.
Fifteen people, including the driver, were taken to three hospitals with injuries of “varying severity”, police said.
Three later died in the hospital, including two 12-year-old girls and a 40-year-old woman.
The driver was unconscious and had tested negative for alcohol, police said.
Nine of the victims were students aged 12 to 15 from Sanxia Junior High School. The youngest, aged six, was from a nearby kindergarten.
President Lai Ching-te was “shocked and saddened”, according to a statement issued by the Presidential Office.
Lai visited the victims in the hospital on Monday night. He has ordered a task force to be set up to help victims and their families and to investigate the cause of the incident.
New Taipei City Mayor Hou Yu-ih, who also went to the hospitals, said some of the victims were “still receiving intensive treatment”.
“We will clarify the responsibility as soon as possible and give the public an explanation,” Hou said.
