A four-year-old girl in Taipei was killed Monday morning by a knife-wielding man who was soon brought under control at the scene and arrested by local police.
At around 11 a.m., the girl was riding a push bike alongside her mother, who was pushing a stroller on the way to a subway station. The 33-year-old man, surnamed Wang, walked toward the girl and suddenly attacked from behind with a kitchen knife.
The girl's bike was stuck on the sidewalk at the time, so her mother thought he was trying to help push the bike. Realizing what was actually happening, she grabbed the man and a passerby helped to bring him under control. Local police arrived and arrested him.
The man, currently jobless and with a history of drug addiction, confessed that he didn't know the girl or her family.
The man's relatives claimed that he suffers from mental illness.
An investigation showed that Wang was hospitalized in 2014 for emotional instability after a conflict with his family, and left the hospital the next day.
It was not immediately clear whether the man suffered from mental illness, according to the hospital.
