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Assailant sets Singapore MP on fire
SINGAPORE, Jan 12 – Yio Chu Kang Member of Parliament Seng Han Thong was in stable condition in hospital yesterday, following an attack in which a man poured thinner
on him and set him alight.
Seng ran onto the stage at the Yio Chu Kang Community Club, where he was attending a community event, trying desperately to put out the flames on his back and head.
The chairman of the constituency’s Chu Sheng Temple, Aw Chui Seng, rushed up to help him beat out the flames but was also burned.
Both men, now in Singapore General Hospital’s Burns Unit, have burns on about 10 to 15 per cent of their bodies. It is understood that they may undergo skin grafts today.
Police have arrested a 70-year-old former taxi driver, in connection with the attack.
The suspect, said to have been in and out of the Institute of Mental Health, was described by neighbours as an eccentric character who would run up and down the corridor outside his flat in Block 629, Ang Mo Kio Avenue 4, for no apparent reason.
Cabinet Ministers and MPs, including Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong, Minister Mentor Lee Kuan Yew and Deputy Prime Minister Wong Kan Seng, visited Seng, 59, and Aw, 69, yesterday, before the MP was sedated for the night.
PM Lee said he told Seng, who is married and has a son and daughter, to concentrate on getting well, and that his fellow MPs from the Ang Mo Kio GRC would shoulder the work of looking after Yio Chu Kang, a single-seat ward.
This is the second time in just over two years that Seng has been attacked. In July
2006, he was punched by a disgruntled constituent who believed Seng was not doing enough to help him get back his revoked taxi licence.
The man was charged in court but the matter was settled when Seng accepted his public apology.
Yesterday, the MP was done handing out bursaries and “angpow” from the Chu Sheng Temple to about 150 needy people and was settling down to lunch with them in the club’s hall when the attack happened, said temple employee Ang Lian Ee, 65.
The man apparently approached Seng from behind, poured thinner onto him and set him on fire with a firestarter gun.
Witnesses said the man was angry that he had not received any angpow. He ran off but was caught by grassroots leaders and taken back to the community club.
The vice-chairman of the People’s Action Party’s Yio Chu Kang branch, George Tan, said the man had gone to Seng’s meet-the-people sessions several times since 2005 to complain that nothing had been done about the “evil spirits” in his house and problems with his neighbours; he has also filed several police reports on these issues.
Several stall holders and residents told The Straits Times the suspect was a familiar, often lone figure in the neighbourhood.
Pastry stall owner Luo Niang Qing, 70, said he was always carrying a backpack and would be clad in his standard attire – polo shirt, long pants and slippers.
He was also often seen helping out at a vegetable stall on the ground floor of the block where he lived.
Marketing executive Teo Chee Siang, 43, described him as a quiet, reserved man: “He doesn’t say much to others but he talks to me because we’ve been neighbours for more than 20 years.”
Teo added that the man used to live with his wife and two grown-up children, who have since moved out to start their own families.
After his wife also moved out to live with their son to babysit their grandchildren, he started acting strangely, said Teo.
Besides running up and down the corridor, he started securing his gate with a metal chain and about 10 padlocks.
DPM Wong, in underlining the “violent” nature of the crime, said: “This is a very serious offence when a person prepares and brings flammable material and goes and burns another person, regardless of whether the victim is an MP or not.
“But all the more so when the MP is a public figure and performing a service to the public, then I think those who commit such a crime should be dealt with.” – The Straits Times
SINGAPORE, Jan 12 – Yio Chu Kang Member of Parliament Seng Han Thong was in stable condition in hospital yesterday, following an attack in which a man poured thinner
on him and set him alight.
Seng ran onto the stage at the Yio Chu Kang Community Club, where he was attending a community event, trying desperately to put out the flames on his back and head.
The chairman of the constituency’s Chu Sheng Temple, Aw Chui Seng, rushed up to help him beat out the flames but was also burned.
Both men, now in Singapore General Hospital’s Burns Unit, have burns on about 10 to 15 per cent of their bodies. It is understood that they may undergo skin grafts today.
Police have arrested a 70-year-old former taxi driver, in connection with the attack.
The suspect, said to have been in and out of the Institute of Mental Health, was described by neighbours as an eccentric character who would run up and down the corridor outside his flat in Block 629, Ang Mo Kio Avenue 4, for no apparent reason.
Cabinet Ministers and MPs, including Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong, Minister Mentor Lee Kuan Yew and Deputy Prime Minister Wong Kan Seng, visited Seng, 59, and Aw, 69, yesterday, before the MP was sedated for the night.
PM Lee said he told Seng, who is married and has a son and daughter, to concentrate on getting well, and that his fellow MPs from the Ang Mo Kio GRC would shoulder the work of looking after Yio Chu Kang, a single-seat ward.
This is the second time in just over two years that Seng has been attacked. In July
2006, he was punched by a disgruntled constituent who believed Seng was not doing enough to help him get back his revoked taxi licence.
The man was charged in court but the matter was settled when Seng accepted his public apology.
Yesterday, the MP was done handing out bursaries and “angpow” from the Chu Sheng Temple to about 150 needy people and was settling down to lunch with them in the club’s hall when the attack happened, said temple employee Ang Lian Ee, 65.
The man apparently approached Seng from behind, poured thinner onto him and set him on fire with a firestarter gun.
Witnesses said the man was angry that he had not received any angpow. He ran off but was caught by grassroots leaders and taken back to the community club.
The vice-chairman of the People’s Action Party’s Yio Chu Kang branch, George Tan, said the man had gone to Seng’s meet-the-people sessions several times since 2005 to complain that nothing had been done about the “evil spirits” in his house and problems with his neighbours; he has also filed several police reports on these issues.
Several stall holders and residents told The Straits Times the suspect was a familiar, often lone figure in the neighbourhood.
Pastry stall owner Luo Niang Qing, 70, said he was always carrying a backpack and would be clad in his standard attire – polo shirt, long pants and slippers.
He was also often seen helping out at a vegetable stall on the ground floor of the block where he lived.
Marketing executive Teo Chee Siang, 43, described him as a quiet, reserved man: “He doesn’t say much to others but he talks to me because we’ve been neighbours for more than 20 years.”
Teo added that the man used to live with his wife and two grown-up children, who have since moved out to start their own families.
After his wife also moved out to live with their son to babysit their grandchildren, he started acting strangely, said Teo.
Besides running up and down the corridor, he started securing his gate with a metal chain and about 10 padlocks.
DPM Wong, in underlining the “violent” nature of the crime, said: “This is a very serious offence when a person prepares and brings flammable material and goes and burns another person, regardless of whether the victim is an MP or not.
“But all the more so when the MP is a public figure and performing a service to the public, then I think those who commit such a crime should be dealt with.” – The Straits Times
