Good Samaritan captured on YouTube helping to stop riot

SINGAPORE — A few days after the riot at Little India took place, more people are giving accounts of foreign workers who lent a helping hand amidst the chaos, reported Channel NewsAsia.

Perhaps the most talked about good Samaritan is a man in a chequered shirt, said CNA. He was captured on a YouTube video, trying to stop some people from rioting on Sunday night (Dec 8).

The owner of a coffee shop frequented by foreign workers in Little India claims he was a regular customer and was likely from Chennai, India.

He said he believed the man was around 35 years old, married and had a two-year-old daughter in India. However, he declined to share his name and said he does not know where he worked.

Mr Mateen Ahmed, owner of coffee shop Spice Box, said: “He comes often ... weekends, weekdays, also he comes. (He) buys food from us. Very good guy.

“I’ve been here for eight years, so I’m seeing him from that time only. (He’s a) very good guy, very good-natured.

“Sometimes if I walk outside, he’s sitting outside ... he’ll come hug me, pull my cheeks. The past three days I didn’t see him — he didn’t come. Maybe, working?”

Mr Mateen also shared with Channel NewsAsia CCTV footage of the night the riot broke out, adding that many of his regular customers who are foreign workers responded quickly to help the shop.

Mr Mateen said: “When the riot started, a lot of people from the roadside, they come, they pick up the chairs, tables, to throw at the bus.

“Then the workers, customers eating here, the regular customers, they help us bring everything inside, all the chairs, tables, close the shutters.

“Then the bottles down there ... they are all throwing, pelting it. The workers help us to put everything inside.” CHANNEL NEWSASIA