SINGAPORE: The police are investigating an incident at an indoor playground in Yishun where a man was seen kicking a young boy.

CCTV footage of the incident, which happened at Sunshine Childhood Playland at NorthPoint City, was widely circulated online after it was shared on Facebook by the boy's mother.



In response to queries from Channel NewsAsia, the police confirmed on Tuesday (Apr 10) that a report was made and investigations are ongoing.



In the video, the boy was seen moving towards the man, who was with a woman and two young children.

As the boy got closer, he was pushed and kicked by the man. The man then threw a toy shovel he was holding at a nearby slide.

The boy then appeared to hit the man's back, and the man retaliated by pushing the boy towards the slide.



At the end of the clip, a woman who appeared to be the boy's mother was seen walking into the playground just as the boy hit the man's back again with his fist. The man reacted by standing tall and staring at the boy.





The boy's mother, Ms Ow May Chen, wrote on Facebook: "We are just so shocked and sad after watching CCTV footage."

She added, however, that she shared "some responsibility" for what happened as she did not supervise her son, named Dex, for "90 seconds".



Ms Ow told Channel NewsAsia that she confronted the man when she heard the commotion.

"(I told him that) he didn't have to treat a five-year-old like that," said Ms Ow.

The man, who alleged that Dex had pushed his son, responded in Mandarin: "(Do you) want to wait until your child knocks into my child, then say sorry?"



Dex, who is in kindergarten, suffered injuries to his stomach and groin, said Ms Ow.

"My son is autistic but he is not a threat to other younger kids. He is playful and likes to join other kids in play.



"We teach him how to behave ‘the social norm’ way in public," Ms Ow said, adding that Dex has never hurt anybody.

Ms Ow explained that Dex retaliated, as seen in the video, because of the way the man treated him.



She has since taken down the video, saying it caused "unnecessary inconvenience" to the playground owner who shared the footage with her so a police report can be made.

