Men sit around, sip beer, smoke and chit chat, breaking only to use the toilet.

The drinking binges, a daily occurrence, last until 10 or 11pm, according stallholders at the Block 1 centre and residents.

It is not uncommon to see fights break out among the drinkers, they added.

The latest episode resulted in the murder on Thursday of 51-year-old Tan Ah Chong, known to friends as 'Eh Gao', or mute in Hokkien.

After joining his friends around midday for beer in the smoking corner of the hawker centre, Mr Tan was stabbed repeatly in the chest.

His suspected killer, 43-year-old Lim Bock Song, fled into the Outram Park MRT station, where he was gunned down by the police when he pulled a knife on them.

But despite the bloody stabbing, it was back to usual business yesterday at the hawker centre, with men and women drinking at the tables where the stabbing took place.

The regulars looked over 40 years old and spoke with each other readily in Hokkien. But they are watchful whenever 'strangers' walk in.

One drinker said in a mix of Mandarin and Hokkien: 'Plain-clothes police officers come here for lunch. We don't want to talk to much when we see strangers because we don't know if they are police who are eavesdropping. I don't want to be called in to 'eat coffee' for five hours.'

Read the full story in Saturday's edition of The Straits Times.