MikeLigalig.com

By Elena Torrijos | Yahoo Newsroom – 16 hours ago


Riot policemen watch burning vehicles during a riot in Singapore's Little India district, late December 8, 2013. A crowd set fire to vehicles and clashed with police in the Indian district of Singapore late on Sunday, in a rare outbreak of rioting in the city state. Television footage showed a crowd of people smashing the windscreen of a bus, and at least three police cars being flipped over. The Singapore Police Force said the riot started after a fatal traffic accident in the Little India area. REUTERS/Dennis Thong/Lianhe Zaobao


An estimated 400 people rioted in Little India late Sunday night after an accident with a bus led to one person's death, according to the police.

The riot saw ten officers injured, and damage to five police vehicles, one ambulance and several private vehicles, said police in a statement in the wee hours of the morning Monday.

27 subjects have been arrested, with police appealing for more information from eyewitnesses.

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The riot broke out after a fatal traffic accident occurred at 9:23 Sunday night between a private bus and an Indian construction worker who was crossing the junction of Race Course Road and Hampshire Road, police said.

The crash victim has been identified Sakthivel Kumaravelu, a 33-year-old construction worker who has been working with Heng Hup Soon, a scaffolding company, for about two years. Meanwhile, the driver of the bus, identified as a Singaporean, is not under arrest but receiving treatment in hospital.

First responders from SCDF who arrived at the scene saw Kumaravelu, who was pronounced dead on the scene, trapped under a bus. During efforts to extricate him from under the bus, projectiles such as bottles started to be thrown at the personnel as tensions escalated.

Rioters then began attacking the bus, smashing the front windscreen and windows. Photos on social media showed an ambulance and police cars were set on fire and overturned.

To control the two-hour riot, police said they activated resources from Special Operations Command and Gurkha Contingent to the scene. In total, 300 police were deployed but no shots were fired from any weapon, lethal or non-lethal, throughout the incident, police said.

Little India is a popular hangout and meeting place, especially on Sunday night, with Singapore's sizeable workforce of foreign labour from South Asia.

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The Straits Times earlier reported that the rioting by mainly foreign workers started after a bus hit a Bangladeshi worker, but this was later denied by the Bangladesh High Commissioner Monday morning.

“In some press and media reports there has been unsubstantiated news reporting which says that a Bangladeshi worker was hit by a bus that escalated the riot incident,” said Mahbub Uz Zaman in a statement.

“I want to categorically state that as per available information the news reports that appeared on a section of media and news involving a Bangladeshi worker is not based on facts.”

A total of 18 people, including four SCDF personnel, were sent to Tan Tock Seng Hospital for treatment.

The riot raised concerns among people in Singapore about safety in the city state and how such incidents could be prevented.

On Yahoo Singapore's Facebook page, Ricky Woon commented: "This matter is under control but the underlying issues are not solve(d). If things continue to be this way and we are being complacent, when things happen again it could be our last chance to react. Will you guys want our country to be back to how it is and sleep in peace?"

News of the riot quickly spread on social media as well, triggering a flurry of tweets and posts about the turn of events in usually peaceful Singapore.

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