A woman who allegedly attacked a high school student with a utility knife, injuring him in the face, on a subway train in Taipei Friday night has been handed over to prosecutors, police said yesterday.

The incident happened near Xinpu MRT Station at around 10:17 p.m. on a Bannan Line train bound for Dingpu, New Taipei City police said.

Before the police arrived at the station to arrest the suspect, a woman named Wang (王), who is in her 40s, she had already been overpowered by four male passengers, one of whom was a Taipei police officer. said the police.

Photo: Screenshot from the Facebook page of Baoliao commune

The 17-year-old student, who suffered a roughly 3cm cut to his face, was taken to Far Eastern Memorial Hospital for treatment and was in a stable condition after his injury was bandaged by emergency medical personnel at the scene, police said.

The student said he did not know Wang, police added.

Witnesses wrote on social media that many people were screaming, running and falling into the train during the attack and that the scene “looked like a zombie movie”.

Wang is a repeat offender who has previously been involved in brawls at MRT stations, the Chinese-language United Daily News said.

She was suspected of having auditory hallucinations and allegedly attacked the student after she thought he had spoken ill of her, the newspaper reported.