Taiwanese authorities are chasing the operator behind a big illegal waste fire in Tainan, and the trail is going cold as the suspect's business address turns out to be gone.

• A blaze broke out overnight on an empty lot in Tainan's Annan District, where a man surnamed Wang is suspected of dumping waste illegally.
• Wang holds no licence to collect, handle, or haul waste, so the case falls under Taiwan's waste disposal law.
• When Kaohsiung environmental officials checked his registered site there, they found a hair salon — the old tenant's lease is finished.
• A second man, surnamed Yang, is suspected of brokering the land used for the dumping.
• Wang is rumoured to have left the country, and officials say they will keep looking for him.

Outlook: Investigators will keep tracing where the waste came from and which counties it crossed, but the case may stall if the main suspect is indeed abroad.