TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — The Ministry of National Defense (MND) on Thursday (March 9) announced that during a morning roll call on a base in Kinmen County, a soldier was not present and a search for his whereabouts is underway.

Kinmen Defense Command issued a Thursday press release saying a soldier surnamed Chen (陳) had not reported for duty at an Erdan Island base at 1 a.m. After an officer was notified, he ordered troops to search Chen's barracks, but he was nowhere to be seen.

Currently, a search is being conducted across the entire island, which is located in Kinmen's Lieyu Township. The 26-year-old soldier is a member of the Lieyu Garrison Battalion and serves as a cook.

The MND said Chen began serving in Kinmen in late April 2020. In the days leading up to his disappearance, Chen had been regularly reporting for duty and nothing appeared to be amiss when he retired to his quarters on Wednesday (March 8).

Erdan Island covers an area of about 0.28 square kilometers and is about 800 meters away from Dadan Island, the latter of which opened to tours for Taiwanese in 2019. The two islands are about 12 km away from Kinmen's main island and about 4.4 km from China's Xiamen Island.