Five youths arrested for stabbing teen
Five youths have been arrested in connection with the attack on two teenagers at Potong Pasir Avenue 1 on Thursday, resulting in one of them getting stabbed, reported The Straits Times (ST) on Saturday.
The victim, Anand Ravindran, 17, a Raffles Institution (RI) student, was together with his friend, Don Tan, 17, at a McDonalds in Potong Pasir when they were accused by three youths of staring, according to The New Paper (TNP) on Friday.
The two friends reluctantly agreed to follow their accusers to Block 122 to settle their differences but to their horror, they discovered seven youths armed with knives and waiting for them, Tan's mother, Tang Yoke Chee, told ST.
Tang added that both teens tried to run away, but they caught up with Anand. A boy and a girl stabbed him twice in the back as a result.
“I managed to avoid being stabbed, but my friend was not so lucky,” Tan, a St Andrew’s Secondary School student had told TNP. He added that he was fortunate to have only escaped with a bruised right eye after getting punched.
After the stabbing, Anand managed to get himself to a nearby clinic at Block 137 before collapsing from his injuries, said the TNP 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," said a police spokesperson.
The police made five arrests from different locations within six hours, and if the suspects are found guilty of rioting while armed with a deadly weapon, they could face a maximum jail term of 10 years with caning.
Anand is showing signs of recovery in hospital, with one of Anand's teachers telling ST that the student's condition has improved and is now able to talk.
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 is the latest in a series of knife-wielding attacks that has plagued Singapore over the last 13 months.
On 30 October last year, 19-year-old polytechnic student Darren Ng Wei Jie was the victim of a gang attack at Downtown East, and 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.
