Don’t believe everything you see online.
If the internet tells you she’s in love with you, the internet’s lying. If the internet tells you Goody Feed is a lousy news site, the internet’s lying.
And if the internet tells you a wild boar attacked someone at an NTUC Fairprice outlet in Bukit Panjang, yup, you guessed it—the internet’s lying.
Video of Wild Boar Attacking People at “Bukit Panjang NTUC” is Fake News
On Saturday (19 August), a video surfaced online that surprised many Singaporeans.
It was footage of a wild boar allegedly attacking multiple people getting off escalators at Bukit Panjang NTUC (spoiler alert: it’s not at Bukit Panjang NTUC).
Of course, netizens ate this up—the video has since been reposted on every social media platform imaginable and has garnered views from just about every Singaporean.
The video first shows a woman carrying a backpack going upstairs on an escalator. Little does she know, on another escalator connecting to the floor where she was about to get off was a wild boar with a personal vendetta against humans.
When the woman got off the escalator, she was immediately attacked by the wild boar.
Even after the wild boar knocked the woman down, it continued attacking the woman on the ground.
At this juncture, an older man came up on the escalator and rushed to help the woman, who was still lying on the ground.
Yet, that’s not all the damage the wild boar did.
The footage then shows another man carrying a backpack getting off on the connecting escalator. To his surprise, the wild boar suddenly rushed towards him in an attempt to knock him down.
Yet, this man wasn’t going down without a fight—as the wild boar dashed for him, he reached out to smack the wild boar on its head.
Regardless, his efforts were pointless. The wild boar attacked him nonetheless.
Fortunately, the man managed to break free of the wild boar and rush to where the woman and the older man stood.
Well, all we can say is that this wild boar is a feisty one.
Incident Happened in Hong Kong and Not Bukit Panjang NTUC
Now for the big reveal: while the footage is real, the incident did not happen at Bukit Panjang NTUC.
It didn’t even happen in Singapore; it happened in Hong Kong.
This incident occurred on 28 July near the MTR Fo Tan station in Hong Kong. The pair attacked by the wild boar in the footage was sent to the hospital for treatment while the authorities tranquilised the wild boar.
Great. This incident didn’t happen in Bukit Panjang. But this doesn’t mean that there haven’t been actual incidents of wild boar attacks in Bukit Panjang. Surprisingly, there have been more than you think.
For one, a 40-year-old man was attacked by a wild boar while walking his dog in Bukit Panjang in June.
Another woman was attacked by a wild boar in Bukit Panjang in May. Her injuries were so severe she had to be sent to the hospital.
If you see a wild boar, stay calm and slowly move away from the animal. Do not corner or provoke the animal. You can learn more about the dos and don’ts when encountering wild boars here.