Bomb explosion on Taiwan train leaves 25 commuters severely injured

Police found a 19-inch steel tube packed with gunpowder in the burnt-out train carriage

A bomb squad officer in protective gear enters the inside of a train carriage after the blast in Taipei (AFP/Getty)

Twenty-five commuters have been left severely injured when a suspected homemade pipe bomb was detonated on a train in Taiwan.

Witnesses say they heard three explosions before the carriage burst into flames, as the train passed through Taipei’s Songshan railway station at around 10pm local time on Thursday on its way to Keelung in the north of the country.

Police found a 19-inch steel tube packed with gunpowder on the train, as well as a long red bag which may have been used to transport the device.

“I saw fire from the lights and I heard a sound and my hair was on fire”, one woman told Singapore newspaper Straits Times, while another described “people panicking and screaming” as the carriage was plunged into darkness.

Victims were filmed by local news stations being taken away from the scene with severely burned limbs and faces, including a 14-year-old boy who sustained third-degree burns.

Taiwan’s Premier Lin Chuan condemned the explosion as a deliberate “act of malice” and said the authorities remained unsure as to the motivation behind the attack.

However Wang Bao-chang from the country’s National Police Agency told a press conference that “an initial investigation has ruled out terror”, according to Reuters.

Police announced they are searching for more than one suspect, among them a man wearing black clothes who was glimpsed by witnesses just minutes before the blast.

Meanwhile Premier Chuan ordered government agencies to form a team to investigate the circumstances behind the blast.