SINGAPORE – A 35-year-old Malaysian man suffered spinal injuries after he was struck by a falling plaster strip outside a boutique hotel in Little India on Tuesday night (Nov 27).

The Singapore Civil Defence Force (SCDF) told The Straits Times that it received a call for medical assistance at Wanderlust Hotel at 2 Dickson Road at 11.40pm.

The man was taken to Tan Tock Seng Hospital.

The Building and Construction Authority (BCA) told ST that they received a call from the police around 12.30am on Wednesday regarding a fallen architectural feature outside the hotel.

“BCA engineers immediately inspected the incident site and observed that a strip of architectural feature made of plaster, estimated to be 4.0m by 0.3m in size, had fallen off from the second floor of the building,” said a BCA spokesman.

Ms Loh Sit Yee, 48, who works at a zi char stall at a 24-hour coffee shop near the hotel, said that stallholders and patrons rushed over after they heard a thunderous crash on Tuesday night.

She said in Mandarin: “It was a loud boom, like thunder, and gave us all a shock. We initially thought it was a car accident but we soon realised the man was hit. He was lying there in pain and couldn’t move. It was an awful sight.” 

She said that she has seen the man in the area on several occasions, sometimes sitting at the spot.

“I feel worried about the safety of older buildings, such as this one. I think I will avoid the area near the hotel for now.”

A 56-year-old chicken rice stallholder, who wanted to be known only as Mr Poh, told ST that people often take a breather and sit on the ledge outside the hotel, where the man was when he was hit. These include hotel guests and those who work in the area.

The man who was hit by the slab works the night shift as a cook at ABC Nasir Kandar coffee shop next to the hotel.

He comes to work at around 4pm, and has been working for only about two weeks, according to an assistant at the coffee shop, who wanted to be known only as Miss Zhang.

“He was still looking alright when I Ieft work at about 7pm. I hope he is recovering well,” said Miss Zhang, who works the morning shift from 7am to 7pm.

Videos posted on Facebook show large pieces of plaster spread across the ground next to the man.

Facebook user Lee Hwa said that a “whole row of stones” fell from the building.

The man appeared to be in pain and a group of passers-by could be seen trying to calm him down before paramedics arrived.

He was taken to hospital in a semi-conscious state with spinal injuries.

No other injuries were reported.

The BCA spokesman said: “As an immediate precautionary measure, the affected area directly below, where the architectural feature had fallen from the building, and other parts of the building facade with the similar feature have been cordoned off.”

BCA added that it has instructed the building owner to appoint a professional engineer to investigate the cause of the incident and inspect the condition of the rest of the building facade, as well as to carry out permanent rectification works as recommended by the professional engineer.

In June, a decorative panel fell 40 storeys from the top of a Housing Board block in Bendemeer Road, though no one was hurt.

Police officers cordoned an area roughly half the size of a basketball court for about 17 hours. Checks on neighbouring blocks with similar facade features were also conducted as a precautionary measure.

The incident came days after a decorative structure on an HDB block in Pasir Ris fell from a height of at least eight storeys, startling residents in the area. There were no injuries in that incident as well.

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