KUALA LUMPUR, March 11 — The head of Taiwan’s intelligence agency has revealed that the island’s security officials received a warning about possible terrorist attacks in China targeting Beijing’s airport or subway system days before a Malaysia Airline jet went missing.
South China Morning Post yesterday reported Taiwan National Security Bureau chief Tsai De-sheng as saying that he had passed on the warning to Chinese authorities after receiving it on March 4.
The paper said there is no indication that the warning was connected to the disappearance of Malaysia Airlines flight MH370, which vanished from radar in the early hours of Saturday, March 8.
The Boeing 777-200 aircraft left Kuala Lumpur and was about an hour into its journey to Beijing when it vanished from the skies with 239 people on board. The aircraft was last seen on radar about 120 nautical miles from Kota Baru on Malaysia’s east coast. Three days into its mission, a multi-country search has yet to find the aircraft.
Intense speculation is swirling around the presence of two passengers who were on the flight with stolen passports.
Malaysian authorities say they cannot rule out terrorism as a cause for the airliner’s disappearance.
Taiwan spy chief Tsai did not specify how the bureau received the warning which came three days after a knife attack at Kunming railway station left 29 civilians dead, the paper said.
China Airlines yesterday confirmed that a call was received on March 4 and said information received had been passed to Taiwan’s Civil Aviation Authority and Aviation Police, it added.
