A staring incident led to another knife attack at Potong Pasir Avenue 1 on Thursday, resulting in the serious injury of a 17-year-old student, reported The New Paper (TNP).
This is the latest in a series of knife-wielding attacks that has plagued Singapore over the last 13 months.
The victim, Anand, a Raffles Institution (RI) student, was together with his friend, Don Tan, 17, at a McDonalds in Potong Pasir when they were accused of staring, wrote TNP.
Later on, the two friends reluctantly agreed to follow their accusers to Block 122 to settle their differences. To their horror, they discovered a group of youths with knives, waiting for them, said TNP.
The same paper reported that Tan managed to run away, but Anand stood his ground and was stabbed in the back as a result.
“I managed to avoid being stabbed, but my friend was not so lucky,” the St Andrew’s Secondary School student told TNP. He added that he was fortunate to have only escaped with light injuries.
After getting stabbed, Anand managed to get himself to a nearby clinic at Block 137 before collapsing from his injuries, said the report.
"The police received a call yesterday at about 4pm, informing us of an injured person at Block 137 Potong Pasir Avenue 1. Upon police's arrival, a boy in his late teens was conveyed conscious to Tan Tock Seng Hospital. Two boys, each 17 years old, were arrested in relation to the incident. Investigations are ongoing," said a police spokesperson.
Lim Kok Keong, 28, a resident in Potong Pasir, expressed his shock at the incident. “I didn’t witness the incident, but I’m surprised that such an attack can happen in my neighbourhood. I don’t remember such violence happening here before. I hope the guy gets better soon,” he told Yahoo! Singapore.
This incident provides a stark reminder of the gang attack at Downtown East on 30 October last year, when 19-year-old polytechnic student Darren Ng Wei Jie died from his injuries after getting slashed by members of a gang who accused him of staring. Eight youths are being charged with murder
Just a week after that in November, two separate parang attacks around Bukit Panjang resulted in seven youths getting hurt. Another incident later that same month saw two teenagers getting into a fight at a fast food restaurant, resulting in one of them slashing the other on the right shoulder with a bread knife.