5-year-old girl narrowly escapes getting hit by falling tree at Sembawang Park

A five-year-old girl narrowly escaped getting hit by a falling tree at Sembawang Park on Sunday afternoon (Dec 5).

Her 41-year-old father told Shin Min Daily News that his family had visited the park to have a picnic and that he and his daughter were playing with a ball near the tree.

When his daughter went to retrieve the ball from near the tree, they heard a snapping sound.

The tree suddenly fell about two seconds later, he recounted.

Fortunately, his daughter was unharmed.

Upon closer inspection, he noticed that the tree's trunk was rotten.

【本地】又有树倒   疑木心腐烂,三巴旺公园的一棵树轰然断裂,险砸5岁女童。    这起事件发生在昨天下午3时30分左右。   吴建丰(41岁,飞机零件生产主管)带着一家四口到三巴旺公园野餐,自己与5岁女儿在草地上玩球时,附近一棵大树忽然...

Posted by Shin Min Daily News 新明日报 on Monday, December 6, 2021

Some workers who were cutting grass in the area cleared the branches from the fallen tree and barricaded the area.

The man added that the incident rattled his eight-year-old son as well.

The family do not intend to return to the park anytime soon.

National Parks Board (NParks) confirmed with Shin Min that it was alerted to a fallen tree about six to nine metres in height at Sembawang Park.

The tree was removed from the area at about 6pm.

Urban trees in Singapore are examined by arborists, or 'tree doctors', in a rigorous and systematic manner, NParks said.