Woman, daughters pull distraught neighbour on window ledge to safety

This article is more than 12 months old

Mar 16, 2018 06:00 am

For one long hour, a woman and her two daughters held on tightly to their bleeding neighbour as she stood on her fifth-storey window ledge.

They eventually managed to persuade the 47-year-old woman to return to the safety of her flat.

The drama happened at Block 371, Jurong East Street 32 on Tuesday at about 5pm.

The neighbour, who was bleeding from her hands and forehead, was later taken to Ng Teng Fong General Hospital in an ambulance, said a spokesman for the Singapore Civil Defence Force (SCDF).

The woman, who wanted to be known only as Madam Janthi, told The New Paper she had returned home from work at about 5pm to notice her neighbour's door open.

She lives two doors away.

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Looking into the flat through the locked front gate, Madam Janthi said she was taken aback to see her neighbour in tears on the sofa in the two-room flat.

"I saw blood on her fingers and on her forehead. I was shocked. I asked her if she wanted to call for an ambulance, but she said no," said Madam Janthi, 49.

"It was weird, as she is usually quite cheerful," she added.

Madam Janthi tried to calm her down and offered to call the woman's mother. She eventually called the woman's friend, who arrived soon after.

The two women tried to persuade the 47-year-old to let them into the flat, to no avail.

The neighbour became hysterical and climbed out of her living room window to stand on the narrow ledge outside.

Madam Janthi shouted to her two daughters for help. The friend suddenly produced a key to enter the flat.

Madam Janthi did not know why the woman did not use the key to open the gate earlier.

She said her 24-year-old daughter, a nurse, and 17-year-old daughter each grabbed hold of one of the woman's arms and tried to console her, while she held on to the woman's shoulders.

They eventually pulled the woman back to safety after an hour of persuasion.

By that time, SCDF officers had also entered the flat.

A police spokesman said they were alerted to the incident at 6.58pm. A 47-year-old woman was arrested in relation to the case.

The woman's friend, 46, was also arrested for obstructing police officers from carrying out their duties, the spokesman added.

She had allegedly resisted the officers' attempts to take the woman away.

Looking tired, Madam Janthi told TNP she was relieved her neighbour was safe.

She said: "I would have done the same if it were a stranger."