A 24-year-old domestic helper who was accidentally locked inside a room while cleaning climbed out onto the window ledge in hopes of returning via the main door of the fifth-floor flat.
The incident happened at Block 241, Bukit Panjang Ring Road on Wednesday (Dec 6) at around 7am.
The daring escapade of the maid was captured on a viral video which Stomp contributor Bugatti alerted Stomp to.
In the video, the maid could be seen walking on the ledge, holding onto window grills.
She then moves onto a smaller ledge, before grabbing hold of the corridor railings.
By then, she was dangling from the parapet.
About three minutes into the video, a woman shows up on the corridor to help.
After assistance from another woman and Singapore Police Force (SPF) officers, the maid was finally pulled to safety.
Reporters visited the scene after the incident and spoke to one of the women who was involved in the rescue attempt.
The woman identified herself as Jane, 35, who rents a room in the same unit as the maid.
She told Shin Min Daily News that the maid had just started working in the unit about a month back.
Jane recalled that she was in the bathroom when she suddenly heard a series of rushed knockings.
A resident who first saw maid on the ledge quickly alerted her to the situation.
She said: “I wrapped myself in a towel and came out to see.
“I found the maid standing on the ledge outside the room.”
Jane quickly changed and ran to the windows to help.
“I kept gesturing for her to walk towards the windows of the bedroom.
“Perhaps it was the language barrier, but she kept going towards the corridors instead.”
Jane added that the ledge was very narrow – about as wide as a foot – and she grew increasingly anxious with every step the maid took.
“When she finally reached the corridor, there wasn’t a ledge where she could stand on, so she grabbed onto the corridor railings with her hands.
“She was dangling in midair.
“During the rescue, her life was hanging by a thread, and I grabbed onto both her hands.
“She suddenly went limp and her whole body weight was pulling me down.”
It is understood that the maid weighs about 70kg.
Hard as she tried, Jane could not pull the maid up by herself and shouted for help.
She lamented: “I was worried that I might too be dragged down by her weight, but I was also afraid that she might lose her grip and fall.”
Reporters spoke to the maid after, who recounted the side of her story.
She said: “I suddenly realised how dangerous it was when both my feet were dangling in the air.
“I thought I was dead for sure!”
She revealed that she was from Myanmar, and converses with her employer in Tamil.
Through her employer, Mr Raj, she told reporters that she was cleaning in a room when she suddenly found that she had been locked inside.
She was shocked and wanted to go back to the living room,
In her moment of desperation, she climbed out of the windows and onto the ledge, thinking that she would be able to enter the house again via the main door if she got back on the corridor.
Said the maid: “At first I didn’t feel afraid.
“Only when my feet were dangling off the parapet did I realise the danger.
“I thought I was dead for sure.”
In response to media queries by Stomp, the police said they received a call about the incident at 7.58am.
After arriving at the scene, officers, along with two members of the public, pulled her to safety.
