A heated argument broke out between some seniors and a group of schoolboys at Clementi MRT station on the afternoon of Feb. 16 over a spilt drink.

Footage of the incident, devoid of context, was subsequently shared to the Tiagong Facebook page on Feb. 22.

The incident

The video showed three boys seated on the ground in front of a 7-Eleven outlet at the station.

An elderly woman in yellow could be heard accusing them of "dirtying the place" and not cleaning it up, while a station staff was standing to the side.

There appeared to be a small pool of liquid on the ground in front of the three boys.

One of the boys protested that they were "trying to cooperate".

He got more agitated as the argument continued and loudly screamed, "You don't understand?"

This prompted the station staff to intervene, but the woman cut in and insisted that the boys "threw some rubbish around".

The same boy denied it vehemently.

By this time, the commotion had drawn two other seniors, a man and a woman in pink, who similarly berated the group.

The man told them, "You are in the wrong, you know? Keep quiet. Don't argue anymore".

Both sides criticised online

Both the boys and seniors drew flak online for how they handled the situation.

Some commenters blamed "bad upbringing" or the "failure of the current education system".

Others, however, criticised the seniors for being busybodies, and asserted that the boys had not done anything wrong.

"Kudos to the boys for standing their ground against those kaypoh people," one wrote.

A minority opined that both parties were at fault.

"One might be too used to telling off their grandchildren and the other too used to [screaming] at their grandparents," a user noted.

Boys apologised and cleaned up the area: SMRT

In response to Mothership's queries, an SMRT spokesperson said a member of the public informed the Passenger Service Centre at Clementi MRT Station on Feb. 16 at around 1:55pm that a group of school boys seated near the 7-Eleven shop had spilt a drink.

Following which, an SMRT staff tried to mediate between the school boys and members of the public, who were starting to raise their voices at each other.

"With our staff's help, the incident was resolved amicably and peacefully with the school boys apologising and cleaning up the wet area," the spokesperson added.

To avoid a similar occurrence, the spokesperson said that staff will advise commuters against sitting in front of the shop.

Top image from Tiagong / Facebook.