43-year-old man shot by police at Outram Park MRT
Posted: 06 March 2008 1655 hrs

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SINGAPORE : A 43-year-old man was shot by Police at Outram Park MRT Station on Thursday afternoon.

The incident happened on the boarding platform for West-bound trains at Outram Park station just before 4pm.

Police said the man was involved in a stabbing incident earlier at nearby Jalan Kukoh, where another man was killed.

Paul Nicholas Chong, an eyewitness, said: "We were waiting, when suddenly we heard a gunshot. Everybody was frantic and running around. We ran behind the wall and hid for about 5 to 10 seconds.

"When everything settled down, we went out to take a look. The person was holding his chest, he went "Ahhhh", and then he fell down very loudly."

The Police said the dead man matched the description of a suspect involved in a stabbing incident at nearby Jalan Kukoh. When officers approached him at the MRT station, he retaliated with a knife, which eyewitnesses said was about 15 centimetres long.

That was when one officer fired his revolver at the man, who died on the spot. No one else was injured.

Commander of the Central Police Division, Superintendent Lau Peet Meng said: "The armed and dangerous suspect approached my officers in a threatening manner at close proximity. In the circumstances, considering that he was suspected to have just killed another man, the officer had no choice but to open fire."

MRT train services were not disrupted, but officers cordoned off the mid-section of the station and blocked off about four doors to the trains for about two hours.

Earlier, officers were alerted to another man who died at a hawker centre at Block 1, Jalan Kukoh. The man, in his fifties, was stabbed in the stomach just before 3pm.

He is believed to have been knifed by the man who was shot at Outram Park MRT Station.

The Police cordon at the station was lifted some two hours after the shooting.

Several members of the public had called the Channel NewsAsia hotline to ask if there was any connection with the search for Jemaah Islamiyah fugitive Mas Selamat Kastari.

The Police clarified that the killing and shooting was in no way related to the search. - CNA/ch