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Mar 22, 2011
'Parang man' sparks 4th-floor rescue
By Jalelah Abu Baker
An SCDF officer helping to evacuate people from a Clementi flat yesterday, after a parang-wielding man scared them into locking themselves in separate rooms. The man has been arrested. -- PHOTO: SCDF
A 45-YEAR-OLD with a parang terrified his family and tenants into locking themselves in separate rooms, with the Singapore Civil Defence Force (SCDF) having to rescue them on Monday morning.
Officers pitched ladders at the front and rear bedrooms of the fourth-floor flat in Clementi, and helped the man's wife, three children and three tenants to safety.
The stand-off lasted about five hours - as the occupants were being rescued, the police tried to calm the man down.
It ended when they finally cut the gate to enter the flat in Clementi West Street 2.
The youngest of the three children, a three-year-old boy, was secured with a safety harness and carried down by a rescuer who rappelled with him.
No one was injured, but the SCDF officers set up rescue nets as a precaution. They also set up an inflatable cushion at the bottom of the block.
The man, who has been arrested for criminal intimidation and drug offences, is unemployed.
Read the full story in Tuesday's edition of The Straits Times.
