In the wake of an Indian family fire extinguisher mishap in a Singaporean food court, a viral altercation erupted between this family and a Chinese family. The incident, caught on camera and disseminated via social media platforms on Sunday (May 22), witnessed many netizens weighing in on the issue.
The first video shows different members of the families standing up and facing each other, and a raised female voice is heard, although her words are difficult to distinguish. The video reads, “The kids from the Indian family played with the fire extinguisher, then happen to spray into the eyes of the kids of the Chinese family on the opposite table.”
In the second video, the families are still facing one another and talking, and written across the video are the words “part 2: while waiting for the police to come.”
A woman’s voice can again be heard yelling, and a few of the people involved are seen pointing fighters at each other.
One man is seen standing and saying, “Yes, we called the police,” seemingly in an effort to calm things down.
While some commenters mentioned the race of the children involved, many others underlined that it boils down to a parenting issue. The children presumably needed to have been supervised and disciplined better.
Others pointed out that spray from the fire extinguisher can cause injury.
One commenter agreed that the parents should take some responsibility, but pointed out that the fire extinguisher should have been inside a safety box.
Some appeared to believe that the parents should be charged for any medical and other fees incurred due to the mishap.
UPDATE: In a May 23 (Monday) Facebook post, Ms Irene Lim, the mother of one of the children affected in the incident, wrote that the manager and staff at Burger King Coastal PlayGrove, where it occurred, had been “irresponsible”.
Ms Lim added that her husband told the manager that the extinguisher should have been “secured so that it could not be abused”.
Due to a large number of customers, the Burger King staff would not be able to help her family, she wrote.
“After he learnt that I had called the police, he said nothing he can do. He went back to the kitchen.
He didn’t even bother to offer us any help, assistance, any medication attention.
He didn’t even check on the children or my mum.”
Burger King Singapore is now investigating the incident, the fast-food chain told Coconuts Singapore in a report published on May 24.
“We have launched an internal investigation to better understand the incident, and we have reached out to Ms Lim directly,” Burger King wrote in a statement.
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/TISG
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