A MAN leapt to his death after he tried to attack his estranged wife and hit her maid with a hammer in their Eunos Crescent flat on Tuesday morning.

The family drama began when Mr Chen Xiang Li, 41, who had a personal protection order (PPO) taken out against him by his wife, went to her flat at Block 36, Eunos Crescent, at about 5am.

According to a report in The New Paper on Wednesday, his wife and seven-year-old daughter were in the master bedroom while the maid was asleep in the living room then.

Mrs Chen, a hairdresser in her 30s, who later recounted the incident to a next door neighbour when she went to her place to use her bathroom, said her husband had cut open the padlock on the metal grilled and opened the wooden door which was normally left unlocked.

He then tied up the maid with a rope and dragged her into the master bedroom, where his wife and daughter were.

He tried to tie his wife too but she managed to fend him off and escaped with her daughter to a nearby 7-Eleven store.

TNP said the couple's marriage was on the rocks late last year and Mrs Chen later obtained a PPO.

The neighbour, who wanted to be known only as Madam Lim, told TNP: 'Mrs Chen told me that her husband was often drunk and had hurled vulgarities at her.

'She also said that her husband once tried to strangle her.'

Madam Lim said she spoke to Mr Chen a few days before the incident and he had appeared depressed by his failed marriage.

The family moved into the flat about two years ago. The couple were from China but had become Singapore citizens.

Mr Chen was a gas cylinder delivery man and had lived here for about 20 years. He jumped from a window in the flat after his wife and daughter left the room. He was rushed to Changi General Hospital where he died at 7.45am.

The maid, who suffered head and facial injuries, was also sent to CGH, and is now in the Surgical Intensive Care Unit. Her condition is said to be stable.