'We didn't want to disturb him'

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Singapore

FOR two hours on Saturday night, a dead man was slumped at a table in a Clementi hawker centre.
But hawkers and customers were oblivious to it as they continued cooking or eating. They thought he was either drunk or asleep because they were used to seeing him in that state.

But when several people later tried to wake Mr Feng Han Teng, 65, he did not respond.

Paramedics pronounced him dead at 11.45pm.

A drinks stall hawker, who gave her name only as Madam Koh, told The New Paper that Mr Feng was a familiar face at the hawker centre.

She said: 'He used to order beer from my stall and food from others. But in recent months, he stopped drinking beer and ordered only soft drinks.'

She said she saw Mr Feng on Saturday at around 8pm, when he ordered a can of soft drink from her. After finishing it, he left about an hour later.

She said: 'I saw him struggling to walk. He stopped by another table and tried to balance himself.'

Mr Feng then walked around the corner and sat down at a table. He used his hand to prop up his head.
SLUMPED

Other hawkers later saw him with his head slumped over the table. One of them was Mr Ong, who runs a western food stall.


Mr Feng Han Teng
He said: 'We often saw him in that position, after he had had some beer. We didn't want to disturb him so we just left him alone. We were shocked to learn later that he was dead.'

Mr Feng lived in a flat at Block 367, Clementi Avenue 2 with a friend, Mr Xu Qing Fa, 54.

He told Shin Min Daily News at the mortuary yesterday morning that he last saw Mr Feng at around 7pm at their flat. Mr Feng was asleep when he left the flat.

He found out about his friend's death only when the police went to the flat at around 1am yesterday.

Mr Xu, a security guard, said Mr Feng was a retiree who was careful with his money.

He said Mr Feng kept mostly to himself and rarely spoke about his family. He had also been complaining about pain from a suspected tumour in his waist area.

Sometimes, Mr Feng would wake up in the middle of the night, crying loudly from the acute pain, said Mr Xu.

He added that Mr Feng had a daughter who last visited him two weeks ago, together with her 4-year-old daughter.

Mr Xu also said that Mr Feng, who was divorced around 10 years ago, used to live with his daughter.

But they stopped doing so when she moved to Punggol. Now, he does not know how to contact her.

He said: 'I hope she will contact me after she sees this report.'

Mr Xu said he and some friends have pooled some money to pay for the funeral.

Police have classified it as unnatural death.

Labels: Old News