HomeOwners Risking Their Lives Cleaning Windows

Woman survives fall from fifth storey, Singapore: A woman owes her life to a wooden shelter at the bottom of an HDB block after it broke her fall from the fifth storey. The plywood roof of the shelter broke on impact and she crashed to the ground. But it slowed down her fall enough for her to escape with a fractured leg.

A man who wanted to be known only as Mr Tan, said he heard a loud thud and walked over quickly to find out what happened. He saw the woman lying on the pavement at the foot of Block 209 at Bukit Batok Street 21. He said she waved at him, as if asking him to go to her, reported Shin Min Daily News.

Noticing that the windows on the fifth storey were open, Mr Tan, 90, asked the woman if she fell from there. She replied yes, but said she didn't know how she had fallen. The incident happened at about 4pm on Monday.

The woman, who is in her 60s, is believed to have lost her footing while cleaning the windows of her living room. There was a small cabinet below the open windows of the woman's flat and she is believed to have been standing on it when she fell. A piece of cloth was found near the window.

Bleeding: Mr Tan said the woman was lying on her back when he found her. She was bleeding from her forehead and from the back of her head. But she was able to sit up on her own and seemed alert, said Mr Tan. She left bloody handprints on the concrete floor when she supported herself to sit up.

A police spokesman said the woman was taken conscious to the National University Hospital, where she remains warded. Police investigations are ongoing. Neighbours said that the woman worked as a nurse before becoming a church volunteer.

Her son, who declined to be named, told Shin Min Daily News at the hospital that she was fine except for a fractured leg, and that she was still weak and unable to say much. She had been alone at home when the incident occurred and the family is still not sure why she fell. The son added that he was thankful that the wooden shelter had helped to break his mother's fall.