The news in Singapore has been getting darker and darker lately.
Last year, a man was seen slashing a woman with a chopper in the renowned incident along Beach Road. The incident was so widely discussed that it attracted nationwide media attention and became the talk of the town.
Just a month ago, ten foreign nationals were at the centre of one of Singapore’s most extreme money laundering cases.
What was once confined to our Netflix screens is now taking place in reality, becoming increasingly common, and it’s even more alarming that these incidents are happening in Singapore.
Slashing Incident Reported in Ang Mo Kio
In an unfortunate turn of events, a slashing case has recently unfolded in Ang Mo Kio.
The six men involved in the incident, aged between 22 and 34, have since been arrested by the police for their suspected involvement in a case of rioting, and investigations are ongoing.
The deadly weapons in question were allegedly parangs.
Two Young Men Slashed at Ang Mo Kio Coffee Shop
According to the local Chinese-language newspaper Shin Min Daily News, the incident occurred at a 24-hour coffee shop at Block 232 Ang Mo Kio Avenue 3.
Residents in the vicinity reported hearing shouts from men and women in the wee hours of the morning.
Speaking to Shin Min Daily News, Ms Zhang, the coffee shop’s supervisor, said that three men and a woman in their 20s, all regular patrons, were conversing in a corner of the coffee shop.
At one point, two of the men went to the restroom.
However, upon exiting the restroom, the man dressed in white was immediately stabbed in the head by six men with a knife.
The CCTV footage obtained showed the six men rushing into the establishment one after another to slash him with parangs.
The man in white reportedly managed to escape his attackers and later returned to the coffee shop to ask for water. He even went to the toilet to clean his wounds before sitting on the floor.
As a result of the injury, the man’s white t-shirt was stained with blood from cuts on his head and neck.
In the other man’s case, it’s unclear how he was attacked.
Diners Continued Eating Calmly Despite Incident
While most of us would have been apprehensive, running for our lives at the sight of a knife and a deadly attack, that wasn’t the reaction for diners at the coffee shop.
According to CCTV footage from Shin Min Daily News, diners at the coffee shop remained unfazed when the attack occurred. There were about seven or eight diners at the time of the incident.
Many tables and chairs could be seen overturned following the dispute, though it didn’t strike a single nerve in the diners.
They were, in fact, calm and collected, as if nothing had happened.
Some continued to consume their food, while others moved to another table with their drinks.
The police said they were alerted to the incident at about 3.55am on the day of the incident.
The police officers who arrived at the scene spotted the two injured men, who were taken to the hospital while they were conscious.
“Preliminary investigations revealed that the men, aged 20 and known to each other, were purportedly attacked by other men following a dispute,” the police said.
The attackers were identified through ground enquiries and CCTV footage. They were said to have participated in an unlawful assembly to cause hurt to the two 20-year-old men.
One of the suspects, 31-year-old Shaun Ho Rui Jie, was charged with rioting armed with a deadly weapon in court on the morning of 15 September.
The other arrested men will be charged with rioting armed with a deadly weapon on 16 September. One of the men remains at large.
The suspects could face up to ten years in prison and caning if found guilty.
