*** Welcome to piglix ***

2013 Little India riot

2013 Little India riot
2013 Little India Riots, Singapore.jpg
Rioters in Little India, Singapore
Date 8 December 2013 (2013-12-08)
Location Little India, Singapore
Causes Traffic accident
Methods Rioting
Parties to the civil conflict
300 rioters
Lead figures
Casualties
Injuries 62
Arrested 40
Charged 33

The 2013 Little India riot took place on 8 December 2013 after a fatal accident occurred at SST 21:23 at the junction of Race Course Road and Hampshire Road in Little India, Singapore, causing angry mobs of passersby to attack the bus involved and emergency vehicles that had by then arrived at the location. About 300 migrant labourers were involved in the riot which lasted for around two hours. This was the second riot in post-independence Singapore, and the first in over 40 years since the 1969 race riots.

The riot continued for approximately two hours, and the situation was brought under control before midnight. Officers from the Special Operations Command (SOC) and Gurkha Contingent were deployed. An estimated 300 police officers were dispatched to deal with the rioting. A witness reported that rioters at the scene were intoxicated with alcohol and threw beer bottles.

By 23:45, all rioters had dispersed to the surrounding areas.

Twenty-five emergency vehicles were damaged in the riots, alongside five that were set on fire. Video footage uploaded on the Internet shows rioters pushing police cars on their sides and setting an ambulance on fire. 39 police, four civil defence and auxiliary officers were injured.

Early estimates put the number of rioters at 400, later reduced to 300 in the aftermath of the riot. The Singapore Police Force dispatched 300 riot police. The police made 27 arrests in relation to the riots. In a police statement released to the media on 9 December, it was specified that of those arrested, 24 were migrant labourers from India, two were migrant labourers from Bangladesh and one was a Singaporean permanent resident. Subsequent investigations revealed that the two Bangladeshis and the Singaporean permanent resident were not involved in the incident.

From 11 to 14 December 2013, nine more labourers from Tamil Nadu were similarly charged in court for their involvement in the riot. Three were charged on 11 December, four on 12 December, and two on 14 December, bringing the total charged to 33. On 10 February 2014, an Indian construction worker was sentenced to 15 weeks imprisonment on charges related to riots.

According to a statement from the Singapore Police Force, the riots broke out shortly after a fatal road traffic accident between a private bus and a pedestrian at 21:23 SST, at the junction of Race Course Road and Hampshire Road. The victim was identified as Sakthivel Kumaravelu, a 33-year-old construction worker from Tamil Nadu, India. Sakthivel succumbed to his injuries and was pronounced dead at the scene.


...
Wikipedia

...