Video of teen who fell from mall's link bridge leaked online

A leaked video has been circulated online purportedly showing the moments before a 17-year-old teenager fell to his death in an Orchard Road mall on Friday (Feb 24).

In the 15-second clip , a boy uses both hands to jump over the 1.2m railing of a link bridge in Orchard Central while a girl in white holds up her right hand.

Seconds later, she appears to panic and looks over the railing.

The time and date stamp shown in the footage matches that of the incident, as does an Orchard Central sign visible in the video. The footage appears to have been shot from the Orchard Gateway side of the bridge which links the two malls. Orchard Gateway has confirmed the authenticity of the video.

The boy is believed to be Jonathan Chow Hua Guang.

Read also: Teen dies after falling 4 stories in Orchard Central

Earlier eyewitness accounts described Jonathan "vaulting"over the railing of the fourth-storey link bridge to retrieve a phone that had fallen on what appeared to be a ledge, but was actually a decorative plasterboard casing.

The incident happened around 4pm on Friday. The non-load-bearing casing collapsed and Jonathan landed on the ground below.

Singapore Civil Defence Force officers took the teen to Tan Tock Seng Hospital but he died later in hospital.

Information on Jonathan's Facebook page indicated that he was from Randwick Boys' High School, a school in New South Wales, Australia. He appeared to be an avid skateboarder who was also interested in parkour.

The oldest of two boys, Jonathan returned to Singapore last year and was waiting to be enlisted for national service, his father told Shin Min Daily News.

"I am not even sure of what happened (on Friday)," said Jonathan's father at the morgue yesterday morning.

This is the first time such an incident has happened at the mall and the affected link bridge remained closed to the public yesterday.

"Together with our building consultants, we are currently reviewing if any other measures, in addition to the glass barrier, are required," said Ms Mavis Seow, chief executive of Far East Organisation's retail business group, which owns Orchard Central.

"In the interim, our security officers will be patrolling the various link bridges at more frequent intervals."

This article was first published on February 25, 2016.
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