Madam Alice Ng, 35, shuddered with fear when she read the news reports of two separate wild boar attacks which injured two women at Punggol Walk last weekend.

The civil servant who lives in Pasir Ris knows how horrifying it is as she was attacked by a wild boar more than two years ago. She was then in her first trimester of pregnancy.

Recalling the horrific attack by the boar, Madam Ng said she was on her way home from work. She was heading towards the bus-stop near her workplace when, out of nowhere, a wild boar attacked her from behind.

She stressed that contrary to some netizens' speculations then, she had not provoked the animal in any way.

She said: "I had my earphones on and was not even aware of the boar's presence until I was attacked.

"Everything went by in a flash. But I remember that I held on to a nearby fence to protect my baby."

She did this to keep the front of her body away from the boar, to ensure that her fetus was not in harm's way.

The boar left only after a cyclist used his bicycle to fend it off. By then, Madam Ng had already been cut deeply on her right calf.

She was rushed to Khoo Teck Puat Hospital, where she underwent surgery. Her injuries were so serious she had to undergo three operations, and she was bedridden for almost a month. It took about two to three months for her to recover and her leg still bears the scars of that horrific attack.

The mother of a two-year-old daughter and four-month-old son, Madam Ng worries for the children in the neighbourhood as they will be defenseless in a boar attack. "I cannot imagine how bad it will be, since I, an adult, already had such severe injuries," she said in a phone interview with The Straits Times on Tuesday night.

Madam Ng's husband Dickson Tan, 40, an engineer, said his heart went out to the recent victims, especially the first woman whose injuries were just as severe as his wife's, if not worse.

He urged the authorities to ramp up their efforts to prevent similar incidents.

A hunt is now on for the wild boar after the two women were attacked at blocks 308B and 310A Punggol Walk on the same night on Feb 20.

The victim in the first attack was bitten and dragged for about a metre before some residents came to her help. The second attack happened 20 minutes later. Both victims were taken to Sengkang General Hospital by the SCDF.

Most residents who spoke to the Straits Times after the recent attacks said they were shocked but agreed that it was common to encounter wildlife in the Punggol Walk area.

The latest wild boar attacks on humans bring the number of incidents to four so far this year - up from three in the whole of 2020.