UPROOTED: The tree fell around 6pm and crashed into Block 243 in Pasir Ris Street 21 on Sunday, damaging the second- to fourth-floor units. Photo: Stomp
An 11-year-old boy was taken to the hospital on Sunday, after a tree uprooted and fell on a Housing Board block in Pasir Ris.
The incident took place around 6pm at Block 243 in Pasir Ris Street 21. The tree, which residents said was about 10 storeys tall, smashed and damaged the windows of three units in the block.
A spokesman for the Singapore Civil Defence Force dispatched one fire engine, one red rhino and an ambulance to the scene.
The boy, Sheik Sheqal Muhd Fazel, was getting a drink from a fridge at the balcony of his grandparents' second-floor flat when he heard someone from outside yell.
"When I looked behind me, the tree just crashed in," Sheqal told The Straits Times yesterday. He was struck on the head by a branch.
Although there was no visible wound, he was taken to KK Women's and Children's Hospital for outpatient checks.
His aunt, Nurul Nadiah Mohamed Aris, 26, was also in the flat when the tree fell. The childcare teacher said: "We heard a loud crash. We were so scared, we thought it was an earthquake.
"It's strange because the weather was calm and there was no rain when it happened."
Madam Nadiah added that glass from the windows shattered all over the living room and the window grilles were bent out of shape. Red ants from the tree also entered the flat.
It was a close shave for her mother, Zainah Ahmad Hariri, 55, who would usually rest on a couch just by the shattered windows.