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S’poreans in New York cautious, but ‘life goes on’

SINGAPORE – The morning after a man plowed through a bicycle path along the Hudson River on Tuesday (Oct 31), New York city remains on high alert with Singaporeans exercising extra caution, while still going about their activities.

A woman is aided by first responders after sustaining injury on a bike path in lower Manhattan in New York. Photo: Reuters

A woman is aided by first responders after sustaining injury on a bike path in lower Manhattan in New York. Photo: Reuters

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SINGAPORE – The morning after a man plowed through a bicycle path along the Hudson River on Tuesday (Oct 31), New York city remains on high alert with Singaporeans exercising extra caution, while still going about their activities.

Ms U-Lynn Lee, 31, who has been based in New York for the past two months, said her first instinct upon hearing news of the terror attack was to check whether the suspect was still on the loose.

While some of her colleagues cancelled their dinner plans in the city, she decided to go ahead with her plans to see the annual Halloween parade in the West Village – about 20 minutes away from the incident.

“There was definitely tighter security at the Halloween parade. The police and first response departments were out in full force in the area. There were bag checks at the barricades and large police cars blocking the roads,” Ms Lee, who works in advertising, told TODAY.

While at the parade though, Ms Lee started to “feel really uncomfortable and worried that something can very well happen” when it became too crowded.

“So, (my friends and I) left after 10 minutes or so and walked away from the crowded areas,” she said.

Singaporean graduate student Victor Too, who lives in upper Manhattan, said such attacks happen “all over the world nowadays”, and was “worried” when he first heard news of the attack.

“I guess life goes on and everyone now knows it’s a matter of when, not if... (We) just have to try our best to be alert,” he said.

Singaporean students at Columbia University, where Too is doing his Masters in Applied Analytics, keep each other posted on updates through a WhatsApp group, as well as a through the “Citizen” app, which is similar to SGSecure but based more on community feedback, he added.

Ms Lee also said she would just have to be more vigilant and take note of suspicious people or activities. “There’s no point avoiding the area of the incident as it can probably happen anywhere. But I will avoid areas that usually have large crowds gathered on the streets, such as Times Square,” she said.

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