A 45-year-old man is believed to have drowned in Boat Quay in the early hours of Friday, Aug. 27 after he allegedly accepted a dare to go swimming in the Singapore River in the middle of the night.

The dare was allegedly made by an anonymous Facebook user Chiongster SG.

The anonymous account supposedly challenged the deceased man, known as Kathirasan, alias Raysan Ace, to swim across the Singapore River at 2.30am during the seventh month of the Chinese calendar.

"Now we dare you bastard faker you swim boat quay river and back at 230 morning before seventh month finish sept 6," the message sent to Rayson said.

Accepted challenge

Raysan put up a post on Aug. 22, writing that he would see to the challenge.

This was despite comments on the post asking Raysan to just let the matter go and not give in to the trolling.

Live video of incident

The act of swimming in the river and subsequent drowning was supposedly recorded live and is currently still accessible on Rayson's Facebook account on Aug. 30.

The video lasted about 33 minutes.

However, as the conditions at night were relatively dark, only the silhouette of Raysan could be made out after he entered the water.

It was not clear who was behind the camera recording the whole stunt.

What video showed

The video started with Raysan taking off his top in the dark, wearing only long blue pants.

"Hi, this is Raysan Ace and I am doing the 2.30am swim across and back Boat Quay river during the Chinese ghost seventh month. Please do not try this if you are not an expert swimmer, I am not," he said to the camera.

Raysan started to climb down the steps of Boat Quay and began swimming across the Singapore River towards the direction of Parliament and The Arts House, which can be seen on the other side.

In the video, he was seen swimming more than halfway across the river, but at the 4-minute 30-second mark, Raysan could no longer be seen as the ripples he was creating ceased.

However, the person behind the camera carried on recording for more than 20 minutes after that.

It was unclear who called the authorities or when the authorities were informed of this matter.

The flash light that was initially used to shine light on Raysan as he went down the steps appeared too weak reach his location after he swam out.

There was no commotion or shouts for help heard throughout the video.

Victim called names, claimed he was a fake

Mothership.sg contacted Bro Zee, who is a member of the Paranormal EncounterSG Facebook Group.

He told Mothership that Raysan was often called names, and there were claims that he was a fake and an attention seeker.

Bro Zee said this happened after Raysan's video interview with Supernatural Confession went viral with 220,000 views.

Raysan was also involved in another video sharing his supernatural encounters in his own home at Spooner Road.

Responding to Mothership's queries, Bro Zee said Raysan had attempted another dare previously.

He shared that Raysan stayed alone all night at one of Singapore's most haunted locations.

Raysan had approached Bro Zee for suggestions, and was told to go to Old Turf City.

"We offered to join him and monitor him but he refused," Bro Zee told Mothership.

"After (completing) the dare, then came the Boat Quay dare," he added.

Similar to the Boat Quay dare, Raysan recorded his challenge at Old Turf City on his Facebook page.

Bro Zee said he believes the perpetrator who challenged Raysan is a member of the Paranormal EncounterSG Facebook group.

In response to Mothership.sg's queries, the police said:

“On Aug. 27, 2021 at 8.41pm, the police were alerted to a case of suspected drowning along the Singapore River near to 60 Boat Quay. The 45-year-old man was subsequently found and retrieved from the waters. The man was pronounced dead at scene by a paramedic. Preliminary investigations do not suspect foul play. Police investigations are ongoing.”

Top images via Rayson Ace/Facebook