The Police has confirmed to Mothership that no incident of assault happened at Nanyang Technological University (NTU) overnight.

Instead, they are investigating a 19-year-old student who first filed a report of an alleged case of assault for giving false information to them.

Here is their statement:

"On 14 December 2019 at 6.24pm, the Police were alerted to a case of an alleged assault on a female NTU student along Nanyang Walk.

Investigations subsequently revealed that the 19-year-old student had provided false information to the police and the alleged assault did not occur.

The Police are investigating her for providing false information.

The Police would like to urge members of the public to refrain from commenting or speculating on the case so as to avoid causing unnecessary alarm."

Mothership understands that the police resources that were seen and deployed on campus were in response to the gravity of the report that was filed.

Officers from the Gurkha contingent were indeed deployed, by Mothership's understanding, and a campus-wide search was conducted for the reported perpetrator over a stretch of several hours — explaining the appearance of police resources on campus as late as 1am.

In a statement shared with Mothership, a spokesperson from NTU also acknowledged the false report, noting additionally that it was relating to an alleged assault on a female student on campus:

"Police were at the NTU campus yesterday night following allegation of an assault on a female NTU student on campus. The police has issued a statement saying that preliminary investigations revealed that the 19-year-old student had provided false information and the alleged assault did not occur.

We would like to assure the NTU community that there is no cause for concern about their safety on campus. The University is reaching out to affected students to provide them with the necessary care and support from the University's pastoral care team.

The University is assisting the police and will not be able to comment further."

They also put up their statement in a tweet:

NTU would like to assure the NTU community there is no cause for concern about their safety on campus. We urge everyone to refrain from commenting or speculating on the case to avoid causing unnecessary alarm. Here is the University’s official statement on last night's incident. pic.twitter.com/MbCYMaAoOQ

— NTU Singapore (@NTUsg) December 15, 2019

Earlier, at about 8:45am, NTU tweeted that there was no reason for students to be concerned about their own safety on campus:

The NTU Students' Union also followed up with an Instagram story repeating the message:

It then followed up with a message that was circulated on some of the NTU schools' Telegram chats:

"Dear Union Members,

On the evening of 14 December, the NTU Students’ Union received news about a possible case of assault within the campus. The Union took immediate action and contacted the Student Affairs Office and Office of Student Life - who confirmed the report. We were informed the police had taken over the case and investigation. We subsequently released statements on our Union channels and through our constituent bodies.

On behalf of the University, we are relieved to share that any incident of assault did not take place and all students are safe.

NTUSU expresses our gratitude to students for being vigilant, and displaying care and concern for our fellow students. We would like to commend students for not causing any unnecessary alarm or panic.

We would like to take this opportunity to emphasise the prevalence of falsehoods and fake news. Fake news and falsehoods can be extremely dangerous and cause much unnecessary distress and confusion. We strongly urge students to be wary of sources of information and take additional measures to confirm the legitimacy and reliability of these sources. Speculation and spreading of fake news can hold serious repercussions.

Please refer to the official statement released by the University and the Police for further information:

NTU would like to assure the NTU community there is no cause for concern about their safety on campus. We urge everyone to refrain from commenting or speculating on the case to avoid causing unnecessary alarm. Here is the University’s official statement on last night's incident. pic.twitter.com/MbCYMaAoOQ

— NTU Singapore (@NTUsg) December 15, 2019

We wish you a great Sunday ahead and thank you for your understanding."

Top photo via NTUSU Instagram, Google Street View