Traffic accident sparks Singapore’s worst riot in decades

The first major riot in more than 40 years erupted in Singapore’s Indian district after a man was hit and killed by a bus. 

More than 400 people filled the streets, setting vehicles alight and clashing with police as news coverage showed debris strewn across the main street of Little India, a popular haunt for Indian and Bangladeshi construction workers. 

Footage uploaded to the internet shows rioters smashing through the bus windscreen as the 33-year-old Indian national lies trapped beneath. 

The uprising was seen as a consequence of continuing unrest among the country’s foreign workers, who held an illegal strike in protest against low wages in 2012. 

Ten police officers were injured and 27 rioters were arrested. 

“Whatever events may have sparked the rioting, there is no excuse for such violent, destructive and criminal behaviour,” Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong stated on Facebook.

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