Sword-wielding
'subway samurai' faces flogging in Singapore
SINGAPORE (AFP) - A subway commuter in Singapore is facing the
prospect of five years in jail plus flogging for wielding a sword
on board a train while dressed in samurai attire.
Metro operator SMRT said police were called in Monday after a man
wielding a samurai sword jumped a fare gate at a suburban station
and boarded a train headed towards the city.
A police spokesman said he was detained for possession of a weapon,
an offence which is punishable by up to five years in jail and a
mandatory minimum of six strokes of a cane.
She did not respond to queries about his nationality or
age.
Photographs posted on social media by other passengers on the train
showed the man wielding the sword while dressed in a white T-shirt
and Japanese "hakama" pants usually worn by martial arts
practitioners.
He appeared to sport frizzy, shoulder-length hair. "From the waist
up he looked like a rocker, but from the waist down, he looked like
a samurai," witness Kim Bomhae told the Straits
Times newspaper.
The images posted on Facebook and various blogs showed police
officers and passengers keeping a wide berth as the man brandished
the unsheathed sword on board the train.
He was apprehended by police who tailed him after he alighted at
City Hall station at the heart of Singapore's civic
district.
The bizarre incident immediately drew online derision. "Seems like
a good way to ensure you get your personal space on the train,"
wrote Ahmad Zhaki Abdullah on the Straits Times'
Facebook page.
Congestion on the 150 kilometre-long (93-mile) metro network has
fed resentment among Singaporeans in recent years.
*Video source from Singapore Straits Times
http://www.thestar.com.my/News/Regional/2013/12/17/subway-samurai-singapore.aspx
