Taiwan's Navy said on Wednesday evening that a hand gun was found to be missing during a recent inventory of equipment to be used for upcoming reservist training, apparently swapped out for a model gun.
The incident has been referred to prosecutors, the Navy said in a statement.
The model gun, stored along with .45 caliber pistols, was found at the Marine Corps Recruit Training Center in Pingtung's Longquan area, according to the statement released by the Republic of China (Taiwan) Training and Doctrine Development Command.
The weapon was confirmed to be a model gun after it underwent "professional inspection," according to the statement.
A rundown of the batch of pistols where the fake gun was found concluded that it had been substituted for a real gun which was determined to be missing.
The command said it has created a task force to do a thorough rundown of firearms and munitions in the wake of the incident.
It said that it would step up internal management and redouble efforts to uphold structure and discipline to prevent similar incidents.
A Navy spokesman could not immediately provide information on when the last equipment inspection took place or what type of weapon is missing.
Source: Focus Taiwan News Channel