She was always laughing, friends recall

 

It is something they will now miss dearly after Liu, 34, was killed in a bomb blast that ripped through the evening crowd at Bangkok’s Ratchaprasong intersection on Monday.

Her husband, Ng Su Teck, 35, and her brother are among the seven Singaporeans injured.

Looking wan but alert on his hospital bed, Ng cut a quiet figure at Ramathibodi Hospital yesterday afternoon. Mr Donovan Chan getting treatment at Chulalongkorn hospital yesterday. The 21-year-old was with his mother at Erawan shrine when the deadly blast occurred on Monday. They were in Thailand for a four-day vacation.

 

 

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Special trip to shrine ends in shock

 

“I’m okay,” he said numbly, before asking whether news about his wife had gone public.

Ng, who works in sales, and Liu, an employee at AXA Singapore, had travelled to Bangkok with some companions for a holiday. Liu died on the spot when the hidden bomb exploded, authorities said.

Her body is being kept at the Institute of Forensic Medicine in central Bangkok. Her relatives turned up yesterday, but did not specify when her body would be flown back to Singapore.

According to one of Ng’s two companions, he wants to be transferred to a Singapore hospital as early as today, and has asked the Singapore Embassy to arrange it. 

Yesterday, the couple’s friends reacted in shock to the tragic news. “I still don’t want to believe it, I’m still hoping they have the wrong person,” said Marc Than, a sales and marketing manager.

Than, 31, met Liu in 2011 while they were both working in DBS Bank. “She was always laughing, very loud and outgoing. I saw her as one of the boys. Just a few weeks ago, we were complaining about [Louis] van Gaal,” said Than, referring to football club Manchester United’s manager.

“She could talk to anybody. If a customer came in speaking proper English, she could speak with him. If an auntie came in speaking Hokkien, she could talk to her too,” said Than.

He said that Liu and Ng had a strong relationship, and he knew the latter as the “strong, silent type”.

Another friend, Serene Boey, said they did not have children, but wanted to conceive and were planning to sign up for a fertility programme this year. “She just attended my baby’s full month [celebration] in March. We’ve been keeping in contact. We’re very close,” said the 35-year-old auditor.

Boey, who has known Liu since they were in secondary school, said her friend was always “friendly and cheerful”.

Speaking in Parliament yesterday about the attack, Singaporean Minister for Foreign Affairs and Law K Shanmugam said: “Members will join me in extending our deepest condolences to the family of the young lady who was killed.”

He added: “It is a tragic loss. To all who were injured, including the Singaporeans, we wish them speedy recovery.”