The deadly blast occurred in a food court. The island’s president ordered an investigation into the cause.
At least four people were killed and 30 others injured in a suspected gas explosion in the food court of a Taiwan shopping mall on Thursday morning, according to Taiwan’s state-owned news outlet.
The explosion occurred in the city of Taichung, about 100 miles southwest of Taipei, Taiwan’s capital, local officials said. The fire department received a report at 11:33 a.m. about a possible gas explosion on the 12th floor of the mall and dispatched 136 personnel, the department said in a statement. Search and rescue teams stayed on site until about 5 p.m., the news outlet, the Central News Agency, reported.
Two of the people who died in the blast, and five of those injured, were tourists from Macau, the Macau Government Tourism Office said in a statement.
It is unclear what caused the blast, the fire department said. Video shared online by the Taiwanese station TVBS News shows an explosion in the middle floors of the building that sent debris and dust into the street. The station also aired clips from inside the building, showing shoppers reacting to a convulsion nearby and scrambling to evacuate the building.
President Lai Ching-te of Taiwan, writing on his Facebook page, called for a prompt investigation into the cause of the accident. He said that the health ministry was coordinating medical resources to provide care to the injured.
The explosion comes less than two months after nine people died in Taichung in a large fire at a food-processing plant that was under construction. An initial investigation by the city’s fire bureau in December found that the blaze was caused by welding sparks that ignited on paint and rapidly spread through insulation materials in the building, the Taipei Times reported.
Claire Fu contributed reporting from Seoul, and Amy Chang Chien from Taipei.
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