Police report filed over parkour incident at Eastpoint Mall

Parkour practitioner who posted video of stunts regrets his actions

Some of the stunts in the video include walking on the railings of a flyover, using a shelter as monkey bars (above) and scaling a roof. The video has been removed.
Parkour enthusiasts were seen on top of the glass dome roof of Simei's Eastpoint Mall in a video posted on Facebook and YouTube. The mall is reinforcing security measures and a spokesman said that a police report was made. The police said that investigations are ongoing. PHOTOS: FACEBOOK/DENESTER
Parkour enthusiasts were seen on top of the glass dome roof of Simei's Eastpoint Mall in a video posted on Facebook and YouTube. The mall is reinforcing security measures and a spokesman said that a police report was made. The police said that invest
Some of the stunts in the video include walking on the railings of a flyover, using a shelter as monkey bars (above) and scaling a roof. The video has
been removed.

A police report has been lodged after a video of parkour enthusiasts scaling the glass roof of a mall in Simei was posted online.

The parkour practitioner who posted the video told The Sunday Times yesterday that he deeply regrets his actions.

The video - which has since been removed - was posted on Facebook and YouTube by 23-year-old Koh Chen Pin on Aug 16, The New Paper reported yesterday.

It shows a group of young people performing various stunts, including climbing onto the glass dome roof of Eastpoint Mall and walking on top of the railings of a Pan-Island Expressway flyover.

Mr Koh, who goes by the alias Denester and whose Facebook page has more than 42,000 followers, told ST yesterday that he was remorseful.

"I'm aware that some activities seen in the video are inappropriate and I deeply regret my actions."

The police confirmed with ST yesterday that a report was lodged and investigations are ongoing.

A spokesman for Eastpoint Mall told ST that it takes "a serious view against any acts of mischief that endanger the safety of those involved and others around them".

"A police report was made and the incident is under investigation," said the spokesman. "The roof area is not designed for carrying out any activities and it is strictly out of bounds to the public."

The mall is reinforcing security measures to prevent unauthorised access and will hand trespassers over to the police.

The director of A2 Movements, said to be the first parkour academy in Singapore, told ST that he is well acquainted with Mr Koh and he thinks it is a lesson to be learnt.

Mr Tan Chi Ying, 31, who has about 50 students, said Mr Koh belongs to the second generation of parkour enthusiasts in Singapore.

"Most of them are in their early 20s," he said. "They are starting to understand... how the adult world works. As young people, they tend to be a bit more thrill-seeking."

Mr Tan said the second-generation parkour practitioners in Singapore are forming a committee to set guidelines on the "really reckless things they should avoid".

Commenting on the latest incident, he said: "I think it's a bit of trial by fire... Doing parkour is not illegal but it is illegal to trespass."

This is the latest in a series of reported risky behaviour. Late last month, a Sengkang condominium issued advisories after pictures of students sitting on open ledges on its 16th floor went viral.

In February, 17-year-old Jonathan Chow Hua Guang died after falling from the fourth-storey linkway of Orchard Central shopping mall.

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A version of this article appeared in the print edition of The Sunday Times on September 03, 2017, with the headline Police report filed over parkour incident at Eastpoint Mall. Subscribe