The woman filmed not wearing a mask at Shunfu Mart and engaging in an exchange of words with numerous passers-by is under investigation for voluntarily causing hurt, causing public nuisance and breaching safe distancing measures.

The police said on May 3 that they received a call for assistance around 12.15pm at 320 Shunfu Road.

The police has also confirmed the woman is a Singaporean, contrary to a lot of speculation online that the woman could be a foreigner.

According to preliminary investigations, the 40-year-old Singaporean woman had previously breached safe distancing measures, was not wearing a mask and had allegedly assaulted a 47-year-old woman who advised her to put one on.

Background

Videos of the altercations appeared online since Sunday afternoon.

In one clip the unmasked woman can be seen covering her face with her arm and holding on to a man's mobile phone, while arguing with another group of people.

In it, she claimed to be a "sovereign": "It means I have nothing to do with the police, it means I have no contract with the police. They have no say over me."

A man, who is off-screen, responded: "This doesn't even make any sense. If you're a person in Singapore, you have to follow the rules of Singapore."

But the woman replied: "That's the thing - I'm not a person, I'm 'we the people'."

In another clip, the woman said to people around her: "You don't tell people what to do, that's the law."

One person at the market accused the unmasked woman of pointing her middle finger, but the woman shot back: "You should have minded your own business... in the first place, you should not have been shouting at me."

The same woman was involved in an incident with police at the same location in April: