'His hands were very sweaty'
There was panic in his eyes. Pale and sweaty, the man hung on to the parapet. Seconds later, he slipped from an elderly couple's grasp and plummeted seven storeys to his death. There was nothing the couple could do to prevent the tragedy, which unfolded just outside their Choa Chu Kang flat.
The woman, who wanted to be known only as Mrs Han, recalled in Mandarin: "My husband and I tried to hold onto him.
"But his hands were very sweaty and within seconds, he had slipped from us and plunged down."
The 63-year-old market stall assistant was so traumatised by the incident on Monday that she stayed awake the entire night.
"We were tossing and turning. My husband and I couldn't sleep a wink. I kept thinking back on what had happened," she told The New Paper yesterday.
The couple have been living there for almost 20 years but Monday was the first time they had seen the fair-complexioned man.
Mrs Han was in the kitchen cooking lunch that fateful morning. Her husband, Mr Han, also 63, was flipping through some photo albums in the living room when he heard the sound of furniture being moved.
He recalled: "The door was open.
"I looked out and saw a man shifting my white shoe cabinet onto the other side of the corridor. Then he climbed onto it.
Yelled
"I yelled at him several times, 'What are you doing?' But he didn't reply. He just turned around, ignored me and climbed over the parapet."
Their younger daughter, a 35-year-old bank officer who was on leave, called the police when she heard her father shouting.
Meanwhile, the couple sprinted out of their flat.
Mrs Han was the first to reach the man, who looked to be in his late 20s or 30s. Dressed in a T-shirt and dark bermudas, he was already standing on the narrow ledge.
She grabbed his left hand.
"He was quite slim. My hand could encircle his wrist," she said.
Her husband tried to grab the man's right arm but the stranger's sweaty hands made it difficult for them to haul him to safety.
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