Above: The struggle at the People’s Park Complex tour agency resulted in manager Madam Shi, who is pregnant with twins, being sent to hospital.
White sandy beaches, local delicacies and a five-day stay at four-star hotels for just $50? Sounds like a dream holiday deal.
Yet, a dispute between a tour group and agency over such a deal degenerated into a fight.
Three women were injured. One of them, the agency manager, was hospitalised.
The incident occurred at 7.30pm on Tuesday at the agency's office, which is at People's Park Complex.
The struggle took place between two sisters, who had taken a $50-tour package to Hainan Island, China, and the pregnant manager of the tour agency.
Shin Min Daily News and Lianhe Wanbao reported that the sisters were among a tour group of about 10 who had gone on the five-day-four-night trip.
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| The tour group had brought the medicine, which they alleged that they were pressurised into buying during the trip, back to the agency. |
The elder sister, a 38-year-old consultant who gave her name only as Madam Fu, told the Chinese papers that they had booked the $50-a-person tour online.
The $50 deal covers tours, meals and accommodation and excludes the cost of airfare.
The manager of the tour agency, who asked to be known only as Madam Shi, claimed that the tour costs are subsidised by the Hainanese authorities.
The sisters said that during the trip, they were taken to a traditional Chinese medical hall.
There, the tourists were persuaded that there was something wrong with each of them and that they had to buy various types of medicines.
"We were really tricked and under pressure to buy the medicines," Madam Fu told The New Paper yesterday.
The medicine cost the tourists about $500 to $6,000, reported Lianhe Wanbao.
The younger sister, Miss Fu, 20, a clerk, told the Chinese daily that when the tour group returned to Singapore, some of them went onto the Internet to research the medicine they had bought.
When they discovered the medicine had excessively high lead content, they complained to the tour agency and the medical hall.
The medical hall later agreed to refund them the money, but asked them to return the medicine via the tour agency.
When contacted by Lianhe Wanbao, a supervisor at the medical hall on Hainan Island said that they had already refunded about RMB 100,000 ($20,000) to the tourists.
The Fu sisters and their fellow tourists went to the tour agency last Thursday to return the medicine.
>>Next: Called police
Called police
Madam Shi told TNP yesterday that she had been serving another customer at the time and had asked the sisters to wait their turn.
"They grew impatient, saying 'Don't waste my time'," she said. "Then they slapped my laptop to the ground, damaging it beyond use."
That was when she asked her staff to call the police.
The police said they had received a call at 7.30pm.
Madam Fu told Shin Min Daily News that when she and her sister were repeatedly ignored by the agency staff, they took out their mobile phones to snap photos to prove they had returned the medicine.
She alleged that when Madam Shi thought they were photographing her, she snatched their phones from them and tossed them into the air.
"She beat my sister and kicked her in the leg," Madam Fu told Shin Min. "Then she slapped me twice." "As she was pregnant, we did not dare hit back," she added.
Madam Shi denied that she had attacked the sisters.
"My belly is so big," she said. "How could I have beaten anyone?"
She is carrying twins, due at the end of September. It is her first pregnancy.
Madam Shi told TNP that in the struggle with the sisters, she was pushed and fell back into her chair, such that the back of her head struck the glass panel behind her, breaking it.
"She (one of the sisters) then threw a cup from the table at me and it cut my face," she claimed.
Shin Min reported Madam Fu as saying that the glass had been broken accidentally when Madam Shi had picked up the chair to hit the sisters, and that the manager's face had been cut by the broken glass.
Madam Shi said that one of her staff came to her aid.
"He came over shouting: 'You don't push her, she's pregnant!' and tried to help me," she said.
The sisters told the Chinese papers that a male staff member entered the fray, swearing at them and punching Miss Fu so that she fell to the ground.
Madam Fu told Shin Min: "When the police arrived, my sister was still crying from the beating." When TNP called the sisters yesterday, they declined to comment on the fight, but said that both of them had been injured.
All Madam Fu would say was: "We are innocent and we trust in the police to prove that."
The police are investigating the incident as a case of voluntarily causing hurt.
Nobody has been charged so far.
As of yesterday night, Madam Shi remains hospitalised in Singapore General Hospital awaiting further scans. She hopes to move to KK Women's and Children's Hospital today.
"The doctor said my pregnancy is not stable," she claimed.
This article was first published in The New Paper.
Photos: Wanbao
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