The man who stabbed three people to death in Taipei, Taiwan, appeared to have prepared meticulously for his attack, police investigators said on Saturday, even as they struggled to find a motive for his spree of violence.

警方调查人员上周六表示，在台湾台北持刀刺死三人的男子似乎为这次袭击做了周密准备，但他们仍难以确定其疯狂暴力行为的动机。

Two days before the man began his assault with smoke grenades and a long knife in the city’s main subway station on Friday afternoon, he checked into a cheap hotel only 50 yards from the store where he ended his spree, Taiwanese police officers said.

该男子于上周五下午在台北市的一个主要捷运站使用烟雾弹和一把长刀发动袭击，台湾警方称，在发动袭击两天前，他入住了一家距离其行凶的最后一个地点——一家店铺——不到50米的廉价旅馆。

He had left evidence of his plans in digital form, they said, and on foot and bicycle he scouted the locations where he attacked stunned shoppers and commuters.

警方表示，他以数字形式留下了其作案计划的证据，并曾步行和骑自行车踩点，勘察他袭击惊骇不已的购物者和通勤人群的地点。

And during his hourslong assault, he changed his outfit five times, the police said, although they did not make clear exactly where or when.

警方还称，在持续数小时的袭击过程中，他换了五次衣服，但没有明确说明具体的地点和时间。

“Up to now, we have not been able to clarify his motive. We know only that he had a plan for this attack,” Lu Chun-hung, the chief of the criminal investigation division of the Taipei City Police, told reporters. He also sought to douse rumors that the attacker, whom the police identified as Chang Wen, had acted in league with others who remained at large.

“我们目前为止没有办法厘清动机，我们只是知道他有这个攻击的计划，”台北市警察局刑事警察大队大队长卢俊宏告诉记者。他还对嫌疑人并非单独行动、仍有同伙在逃的传言进行了澄清。

“We’ve reviewed all the surveillance camera footage and found that he acted alone and did not have any contact with anyone else,” Mr. Lu said.

“我们调了所有的监视器，他都是单独行动，没有跟任何其他人接触，”卢俊宏说。

Three people died from wounds suffered in the attacks, and the attacker died after apparently jumping from the fifth floor of a retail building where he had just fatally stabbed a man. Eleven other people were injured, six of whom were still in the hospital on Saturday, said Taiwan’s minister of health, Shih Chung-liang.

在此次袭击中，三人伤重不治，袭击者在当地一家购物场所的五楼刺死一名男子后，疑似从该处跳楼身亡。台湾卫生福利部部长石崇良称，另有11人受伤，其中六人截至上周六仍在住院治疗。

The bloodshed drew intense public attention in Taiwan, where outbursts of deadly violence are rare.

这起流血事件引起了台湾民众的极大关注，在当地，致命的暴力事件非常罕见。

For the second day in a row, Taiwan’s president, Lai Ching-te, and other senior officials sought to reassure residents that the government would thoroughly investigate the killings and look for lessons to prevent any similar attacks. The last similar case was in 2014, when a man went on a stabbing spree on a Taipei subway train, killing four people. He was executed in 2016.

台湾总统赖清德及其他高级官员连续两天出面安抚民众，表示政府将彻底调查这起杀人事件，并从中吸取教训，以防止类似袭击再次发生。上一次类似案件发生在2014年，当时一名男子在台北捷运上持刀行凶，造成4人死亡。该男子于2016年被执行死刑。

The latest series of attacks began around 3:40 p.m. and ended a little over three hours later, according to a timeline described by Chang Jung-Hsin, the director-general of Taiwan’s National Police Agency, in a televised meeting. At the same meeting, Taiwan’s premier, Cho Jung-tai, suggested that answers were needed about why the attacker could continue his actions for so long after witnesses were already alarmed.

据台湾警政署署长张荣兴在一个视讯会议上介绍的时间线显示，这一系列袭击始于下午3点40分左右，在三个多小时后结束。在同一次会议上，台湾行政院院长卓荣泰表示，有必要弄清楚在目击者已经报警的情况下，袭击者为何还能持续行动如此之久。

The police said the man set out from his hotel room and began by trying to set on fire parked vehicles. He went back to a small apartment he rented and tried to set fire to it, and then went to Taipei Main Station, pulling a small trolley holding improvised smoke grenades. He tossed the grenades near a busy concourse and entryways and attacked a man with a knife, after the man tried to stop his attack, the mayor of Taipei, Chiang Wan-an, told reporters.

警方表示，该男子从所住的旅馆房间出发，首先试图点燃停放的车辆。随后他回到自己租住的一间小公寓，试图纵火；接着前往台北车站，拖着一辆装有自制烟雾弹的小推车。台北市长蒋万安告诉记者，他在一处人流密集的连通道和出口附近投掷烟雾弹，并在一名男子试图阻止其行凶后，用刀袭击了该男子。

Police officers arrived to try to catch the attacker, but he escaped back to his hotel room, and then walked about half a mile to a branch of the Eslite bookstore in Zhongshan neighborhood, an area thronged by young Taiwanese, especially on a weekend evening. He had rented a hotel room a stone’s throw from the store.

警方赶到现场试图抓捕袭击者，但他逃回了自己的旅馆房间，随后步行近千米，前往位于中山区的一家诚品书店分店。该区域挤满年轻人，尤其在周末夜晚。他租住的旅馆房间距离该书店仅咫尺之遥。

He threw more smoke grenades at the crowd, which was growing increasingly alarmed. The attacker, dressed at this point in black shorts, shirt and cap, then stabbed a second man. Then he rushed upstairs in the bookstore and fatally stabbed another man on the fourth floor.

他又向恐慌情绪不断加剧的人群投掷了更多烟雾弹。此时，身穿黑色短裤、衬衫、戴着帽子的袭击者随后刺伤了第二名男子。接着，他冲至书店楼上，在四楼将另一名男子刺死。

Moments later, the attacker climbed to the fifth floor of the building, left some clothes and equipment on the floor, and plunged to his death on the street below.

不久之后，袭击者爬上大楼五楼，将部分衣物和装备留在地上，然后一跃而下，坠亡于下方街道。

While officials stressed that they were still trying to understand the attacker’s motives, details of his life and final actions suggested that he led an isolated and increasingly troubled life.

官员们强调，他们仍在努力弄清袭击者的动机，但其人生经历和最后的行为细节表明，他过着一种孤立且日益备受困扰的生活。

He had fallen out of contact with his family for two years or more, and had also lost his job, the police said. Previously, he had been discharged from the Taiwanese military in 2021 for driving while drunk. Family members told the police investigators that he had been interested in weapons since childhood.

警方表示，他已与家人失去联系两年或更长时间，并且失去了工作。此前，他曾因酒驾于2021年被台湾军方开除。家属向警方调查人员表示，他从小就对武器感兴趣。

When he fled the train station, he left behind gasoline bottles, a tactical vest and a gas mask. At his small apartment, which he had tried to set on fire, investigators found more knives, five gasoline containers and a laptop computer that was burned. Inside the hotel room that the man had rented for his final three days, they found 23 primitive gasoline bombs, two tablet computers and more knives.

他在逃离车站时留下了汽油瓶、一件战术背心和一个防毒面具。在他试图纵火的小公寓里，调查人员发现了更多的刀具、五个汽油容器以及一台被烧毁的笔记本电脑。在这名男子为生命最后三天租住的旅馆房间内，警方发现了23枚简易汽油炸弹、两台平板电脑和更多的刀具。