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SINGAPORE: For the past three months, life has been going on as usual for the students of Chestnut Drive Secondary School.
But unknown to most of them, their school has been the target of an unidentified sniper.
In a startling revelation, TODAY has learnt that someone has fired six shots at the school since April, the last air pellet bullet being fired on Tuesday into the male toilet on the third level of the science block.
Bullet holes mark some of the walls on the same level, and Today understands that air gun pellets may have been discovered during a police investigation.
Students were not seen on the third level of the science block when TODAY visited the school Wednesday morning but the school has been in normal operation since the first shots were fired at the end of April.
Said Chestnut Drive principal Chan Mee Leen, who believes that the incidents took place during non-school hours: "The school has taken steps and the staff have been alerted to what is going on to ensure that none of the students get injured.
"The students have not been informed because we did not want to alarm them unnecessarily.
"But we are being very vigilant and are not taking any chances. The safety of the students is paramount and we are leaving the police to investigate the matter."
She added that the teachers have been told not to let students sit too close to the windows in the science block until the police find the culprit.
Police spokesman Mohamed Razif said that they were investigating the matter and that they are "currently in the process of establishing the cause of the damage."
TODAY understands that the authorities are trying to work out where the shots were fired from.
There were early suspicions that the shots may have ricocheted from the Bukit Timah shooting range but this possibility was later ruled out as the distance from the rifle range to the school's premises is estimated to be at least three kilometres.
The trajectories of the shots also suggest that they could not have originated there.
Sources told TODAY that the authorities are currently looking at the possibility that the shots were fired from private estates in the Chestnut Drive area.
Under the Arms Offences Act, anyone who uses or attempts to use a firearm, which includes air guns, is guilty of an offence punishable by death.
Although air guns are used in sporting events, a Singapore Armed Forces weapons expert told TODAY that such weapons could be dangerous.
He said: "An air gun is lethal and can kill. If they can shatter glass and make holes in concrete walls, just imagine what they could do to the human body. If shot at close range, or if pellets hit someone's eye or penetrated the temple region, they could surely kill." - TODAY
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