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On August 1, Facebook user Andrew Lee put up a post with the caption "fwd as recd", showing a photo of the poster in question, which featured the Members of Parliament (MPs) for Tanjong Pagar GRC, and an Indian family in the upper right-hand corner, with a green arrow pointing to the family.

In response, several netizens posted xenophobic and racist comments.

Other netizens react with anger towards outpouring of racism and xenophobia

These comments in turn attracted other netizens who reacted with anger at the outpouring of racist and xenophobic sentiments.

Some of the comments pointed out that the banners were part of a series featuring different families.

One netizen also said that he had made a police report over the reactions.

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

"The Police are aware of a Facebook post showing a National Day banner from Tanjong Pagar GRC that has a superimposed arrow pointing towards a family of a certain race.

The Police confirm that reports have been lodged regarding some of the comments in the post that were allegedly racist, and investigations are ongoing."

Poster is part of a series by Tanjong Pagar town council

On August 2, about 12 hours after Lee had put up his post, Tanjong Pagar town council put up a post detailing a series of posters as part of a National Day series, which features families and people of different races.

An Instagram user, whose family was in the poster, also put up a post in response to the entire fiasco.

He said that his family were Singapore citizens who had been invited to pose for the banner, and that his parents had moved from Malaysia over 30 years ago.

Elaborating that he was "born and bred here" along with his siblings, he added that he had been "representing Singapore in athletics since" he was 15.

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Top collage images from Andrew Lee Facebook