SINGAPORE: A 20-year-old student was hospitalized on Monday evening (Jan 13) after falling from one of the hostels at the National University of Singapore (NUS). The university confirmed that the student was receiving medical attention and police are investigating the matter, reports say.
On Monday, a post on Reddit NUS said that someone had fallen from a height at Prince George’s Park Residences, an apartment-style self-contained student housing estate at NUS. The post author mentioned that the matter was under investigation and asked members of the community not to speculate about the incident.
A report on Mothership quotes the police and the Singapore Civil Defence Force (SCDF) as saying they received an alert concerning the incident shortly past 8 pm on Monday. According to the police, it was a case of a fall from height.
The student was conscious when he was brought to the National University Hospital (NUH). One other person evaluated for slight injuries did not need hospital treatment.
According to the Reddit NUS post, “a puddle of blood” had been seen outside the canteen that evening and the police and an ambulance arrived at the scene.
The university has commented on the matter, with Associate Professor Prahlad Vadakkepat, Master of Pioneer House at NUS, confirming to Mothership that the man who had fallen is a student at NUS.
This is not the first fall from height at NUS. A previous incident had a more tragic outcome. In 2017, an 18-year-old female NUS student from South Korea fell to her death after attempting to climb into her locked dormitory room through a window.
First-year business student Jung Haelin, 18, inadvertently locked herself out of her dorm room when she left it on Oct 28, 2017, to throw away some trash.
Footage from CCTV taken at Block C of Sheares Hall showed that Ms Jung had tried to knock on the doors of other students on her floor to wake them up but had been unsuccessful. She was then seen going into the pantry beside her room.
“Regrettably, it would appear that Ms Jung, after finding herself locked out of her room, decided to follow the example of her seniors to gain access to her room. She entered the pantry… and likely had attempted to leap across to her room from the laundry ledge outside the pantry window when she missed her footing and fell to the ground,” said State Coroner Kamala Ponnampalam, who ruled that the student’s death had been a tragic misadventure. /TISF
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