‘This is very embarrassing’: Middle East crisis takes a detour to an office park in Taiwan

A crowd of journalists hears from Gold Apollo founder and chief executive Hsu Ching-kuan at the door of the company's office in New Taipei City in the wake of the pager attacks in Lebanon. Photograph: Helen Davidson/The Guardian

It was an unusual and alarming day at work for the staff and neighbours of Gold Apollo, a Taiwanese tech company in an office park in a leafy district half an hour outside Taipei.

On the third floor of building “B”, dozens of media crowded the corridor outside Gold Apollo’s glass entrance, which was still festooned with leftover Lunar New Year decorations wishing for prosperity.