Man taken to hospital after knife attack, 4 arrested in Teck Whye Lane incident
A woman did not pay much attention when she heard yelling from the open space at the foot of Block 141 Teck Whye Lane on Wednesday evening (Aug 3).
She was used to it because a group of men would usually gather there every night for their drinking session and would sometimes become rowdy.
But she soon realised something was wrong when the shouting grew louder and was followed by screams of pain.
"My husband was the one who first heard the screams, and when it got louder at around 8 o'clock, I knew that something terrible was happening," the woman, who wanted to be known only as Mrs Tan, 50, told the Straits Times on Thursday.
The couple peered out of their third-storey window to try to see what was going on. "We couldn't see much, but we heard from neighbours that it was a drunken fight between two men, one of whom was attacked with a knife."
She added: "My husband and I were horrified as this was the first violent attack to occur near our block in our two decades living here."
The police told ST on Thursday that they were alerted to a fight along Teck Whye Lane at 8.02 pm on Wednesday.
A 37-year-old man was taken conscious to hospital, and three men, aged 18 to 45, and a 25-year-old woman were arrested in relation to the case. Investigations are ongoing.
The Singapore Civil Defence Force also told ST it received a call for assistance from Block 141 and took an injured person to Ng Teng Fong Hospital for treatment.
When asked by ST, the police said the victim had suffered cuts to his upper body.
The alleged attacker is believed to be the son of one of the men involved in the initial argument, Chinese language newspaper Shin Min Daily News reported on Thursday. He was believed to have attacked the victim with a knife as he wanted to stand up for his father, the paper added.
When ST visited Block 141 at 3 pm on Thursday, several residents and shop owners said they were shocked that the argument had turned so violent.
A mobile phone repair shop owner in his late 20s, who wanted to be known only as Mr Fan, said he saw the incident as he was about to close his shop at 8pm.
"I saw a young man take out a knife and chase a man wearing a white top and black pants. There was a trail of blood, and the victim was bleeding from his head, neck and chest. Thankfully, some people called the police," Mr Fan added.
A clothes alteration shop owner, who gave her name as Mrs Sia, said several residents, including the alleged attacker and victim, would drink in the open space at night.
The group would sometimes argue and fight, but they had never escalated into a violent attack, added Mrs Sia, who is in her 40s.
"The drinking behaviour in this block has always been worrying and is a headache for residents and shop owners when fights happen. But this time, it's serious and I hope it will never happen again."
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