--- title: Taiwan: Girl Beheaded on the Street in Front of Mother description: A four-year-old girl was snatched from her bike by a knife-wielding man and beheaded in front of her mother in Taiwan's capital Taipei. canonical: https://time.com/4274584/taiwan-taipei-toddler-attack-beheaded/ author: Mark Rivett-Carnac article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2016-03-29T04:55:40.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-02-22T16:16:59.091Z article:section: World og:title: Four-Year-Old Girl Decapitated in Attack on Taiwan Street og:description: The mother tried to wrestle the attacker off her daughter, but he was too strong og:url: https://time.com/4274584/taiwan-taipei-toddler-attack-beheaded/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt282bd7f781b4fe48/69888cd7196cf47d6303af2c/rtscj7x.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: People leave messages on memorial books at a makeshift memorial near the site where girl was found decapitated, outside a metro station, in Taipei, Taiwan og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Four-Year-Old Girl Decapitated in Attack on Taiwan Street twitter:description: The mother tried to wrestle the attacker off her daughter, but he was too strong twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt282bd7f781b4fe48/69888cd7196cf47d6303af2c/rtscj7x.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Four-Year-Old Girl Decapitated in Attack on Taiwan Street by [Mark Rivett-Carnac](/author/mark-rivett-carnac/) ## Mark Rivett-Carnac Mar 29, 2016 4:55 AM CUT  People leave messages at a makeshift memorial near the site where a girl was found decapitated in Taipei, Taiwan, March 28, 2016 People leave messages at a makeshift memorial near the site where a girl was found decapitated in Taipei, Taiwan, March 28, 2016Tyrone Siu—Reuters by [Mark Rivett-Carnac](/author/mark-rivett-carnac/) ## Mark Rivett-Carnac Mar 29, 2016 4:55 AM CUT A four-year-old girl was [snatched](http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/front/archives/2016/03/29/2003642675/1 "undefined") from her bike by a knife-wielding man and beheaded in front of her mother on Monday in Taiwan’s capital Taipei, according to police. The mother and daughter were on their way to a metro station to meet family when the 33-year-old suspect, surnamed Wang, overwhelmed the mother and decapitated the child, reports local newspaper Taipei _Times._ Police have launched an investigation into the apparent random killing. The mother tried to wrestle the attacker off her daughter, but he was too strong. The child “died on the spot,” the police statement reads, according to [Agence France-Presse](http://news.yahoo.com/taiwan-toddler-beheaded-random-killing-003725453.html?nf=1 "undefined"). Pedestrians subdued the suspect before police arrived and arrested him at the scene. When officers tried to transport the suspect from the precinct for further questioning, an angry mob descended, reportedly shouting, “kill him.” Wang has not yet entered a plea and reportedly told police that he did not know the victim, according to the _Times._ Records show he sought treatment at a psychiatric hospital in 2014 and has past convictions for drug offenses. As police try to stitch together a motive, extra patrols have been deployed in neighborhoods across the island. \[[_Times_](http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/front/archives/2016/03/29/2003642675/1 "undefined"), [_AFP_](http://news.yahoo.com/taiwan-toddler-beheaded-random-killing-003725453.html?nf=1 "undefined")\] ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4274584/taiwan-taipei-toddler-attack-beheaded/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4274584/taiwan-taipei-toddler-attack-beheaded/"},"headline":"Four-Year-Old Girl Decapitated in Attack on Taiwan Street","datePublished":"2016-03-29T04:55:40.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-22T16:16:59.091Z","description":"The mother tried to wrestle the attacker off her daughter, but he was too strong","url":"https://time.com/4274584/taiwan-taipei-toddler-attack-beheaded/","keywords":["Taiwan","Attack","girl"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt282bd7f781b4fe48/69888cd7196cf47d6303af2c/rtscj7x.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Mark Rivett-Carnac","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/mark-rivett-carnac/"}],"articleSection":"World","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt282bd7f781b4fe48/69888cd7196cf47d6303af2c/rtscj7x.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"People leave messages on memorial books at a makeshift memorial near the site where girl was found decapitated, outside a metro station, in Taipei, Taiwan","caption":"People leave messages on memorial books at a makeshift memorial near the site where girl was found decapitated, outside a metro station, in Taipei, Taiwan","creditText":"Tyrone Siu—Reuters","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/world/","name":"World"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/taiwan/","name":"Taiwan"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4274584/taiwan-taipei-toddler-attack-beheaded/","name":"Four-Year-Old Girl Decapitated in Attack on Taiwan Street"}}]}] ```