SINGAPORE: A 50-year-old man was arrested for criminal intimidation and suspected drug-related offences on Tuesday evening (Mar 20) after he locked himself in his home at Ho Ching Road with two family members, the police said in a Facebook post.
The incident started at about 1pm, when the police and Central Narcotics Bureau were conducting a joint operation.
When the suspect saw the officers, he refused to open the door and locked his family members and himself in the house. He then armed himself with a knife and threatened to harm the officers if they entered the unit.
Officials at the scene. (Photo: Abdul Hamid)
Officers from the Special Operations Command later gained entry into the unit at about 5.50pm. The man’s elderly father and girlfriend were not harmed, said police.
Substances believed to be controlled drugs and other drug paraphernalia were found in the unit, police added.
The police also clarified that the incident was “not a hostage situation”. Media reports had earlier claimed that a suspected “hostage situation” involving an armed man was ongoing at Ho Ching Road .
Police officers at the scene. (Photo: Abdul Hamid)
Channel NewsAsia saw a karambit knife placed next to a police shield at the corridor near the third-floor unit following the operation. It was later covered up by a box.
Multiple police and Singapore Civil Defence Force vehicles were also seen at the scene.
An inflatable life air pack had also been set up at the foot of the block.
SCDF officials at the scene of Block 114, Ho Ching Road.
A neighbour, 78-year-old Mr Ng Eng Ann, told Channel NewsAsia that he did not hear any noise throughout the operation.
Police and SCDF officers had gone to his fifth-floor unit around 1pm as they needed to use his unit to cast a net down to the suspect’s unit on the third floor.
“Between 1pm to 6pm, there were about 20 police and SCDF officers who came in and out of my unit,” Mr Ng said.
Mr Ng added that a family of three lived at the third-floor unit, including an elderly who is about 80 years old.
