Three-year-old girl beheaded in ‘random’ attack outside metro station

WARNING: Disturbing. A man has been arrested over the “random” public beheading of a three-year-old toddler outside a train station.

Image shows: The arrested assailant Source / copyright UNKNOWN > TAIPEI - A 33-year-old man was arrested in Taiwan on Monday (March 28) for allegedly chopping off the head of a four-year-old girl, reports said. The suspect, who reportedly has a history of mental illness, attacked the young girl at a Taipei suburb on Monday at about 11am, Focus Taiwan said. The attack happened right in front of her mother. Her grieving mother, Mrs Liu, told Apple Daily that she was about one metre away from her daughter, but could not stop the killer. The girl was going upslope on a strider bike when the suspect approached her from behind. She and her mother were on their way to a train station to meet her grandfather and her younger siblings. Thinking that the suspect was trying to help push her daughter up the slope, Mrs Liu did not attempt to stop him. Instead, he pulled out a chopper and brought it down on the little girl's neck, the newspaper said. When she realised what was happening, Mrs Liu tried to hold the killer back, but was not strong enough to stop him. Passers-by then helped to subdue the attacker, but by then, he had decapitated the victim. A blood-stained chopper was found near the crime scene, said Focus Taiwan. "I could not believe it. How can something so cruel happen?" the girl's grandmother sobbed as she told TVBS in Mandarin. The victim, nicknamed "Little Lightbulb", is the second of four children in her family. Her father works in the IT industry, and her mother is a housewife. She has a nine-year-old sister and a younger brother and sister who are two-year-old twins. A photo of the suspect, his face splattered with blood as he was brought in by the police, was published by Taiwanese media. The suspect, surnamed Wang, is said to be unemployed, and has a history of mental illness and drug offences. The case has shocked Taiwanese.201603280022t0001.jpg

A TAIWANESE toddler was beheaded in Taipei on Monday in what police said appeared to be a random killing, sending shock waves through the island.

The victim, surnamed Liu, was with her mother and headed to a metro station to meet up with relatives when she was attacked, according to a police statement.

The suspect, a 33-year-old man surnamed Wang, reportedly overpowered the child’s mother and decapitated the child with a kitchen knife.

“The girl’s mother rushed forward to pull Wang away, but he was stronger and pushed (her) aside,” read the statement. “She died on the spot.”

Wang was arrested at the scene of the crime and is currently in police custody. He has yet to enter a plea.

Police at the scene of the crime in Taipei. Picture: Central News Agency Taiwan

The police did not specify the victim’s age, however, local media reported that the girl was four years old.

Police said Wang had been booked in the past over drug-related crimes. Taiwan’s Apple Daily reported that Wang was unemployed and living with his parents and had been hospitalised due to mental health issues.

Taiwan’s outgoing President Ma Ying-jeou called on authorities late Monday to conduct a thorough investigation into the murder, while police island-wide were instructed to increase patrols of neighbourhoods.