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Commotion at Catholic church as woman climbs bell tower
30 August 2012 3:01 PM | Updated 3:41 PM
(Photo / WikiMedia Commons)
Alarm bells of a different sort went off yesterday morning at a church, when a woman tried to climb a bell tower there.
She entered the compounds of the Church of the Nativity of Blessed Virgin Mary at Upper Serangoon Road, near Hougang Avenue 8, and went up a flight of stairs to the upper loft of the Catholic church.
Reverend Henry Siew, 52, the parish priest of the church, told inSing News that he was not there at the time but was told of the incident.
“Someone saw her and alerted our operations officer, Mr Peter Heng, who went to take a look,” Reverend Siew said. “She chased him away and refused to come down.”
The church, which was built in 1901, has a bell tower that is at least three storeys high and the only way to get up is to enter the church building and take a flight of stairs.
Mr Heng decided to call the police and the Singapore Civil Defence Force (SCDF).
SCDF told inSing News that it received a call at 11.24am regarding the incident at the church and sent an ambulance, two fire engines and three support vehicles.
Officers found a woman in her 30s on the top floor of the church building. They opened up a life pack, which is a safety air cushion, as a precaution.
The SCDF spokesperson said: “The woman was coaxed to safety and she had no visible injuries. There was no need for the ambulance services in the end.”
Police told inSing News that the woman was in "an unauthorised area of the premises" and she was arrested at around 12.15pm for criminal trespass. They are investigating the case.
Reverend Siew, who has been parish priest of the church for four years, said neither he nor Mr Heng had seen the woman before or knew who she was.
Asked if it was the first time such an incident had taken place at the church, he said: “I hope so! She was not a parishioner of the church. We really don’t know her intentions.”
