SINGAPORE, Sept 28 — A 39-year-old man was arrested today after holding a two-year-old boy hostage for about 17 hours in a flat at Block 462 Sembawang Drive.

The standoff, which followed a dispute with the child’s family members yesterday, only ended at about 12pm today after officers from the Special Operations Command broke into the fifth floor unit. The boy, who is unharmed, has been taken into police custody.

The 39-year-old man was arrested for Wrongful Confinement and drug-related offences. The boy’s mother has also been arrested for suspected drug offences, the police said. Police investigations are ongoing.

TODAY understands that the man was not holding a weapon.

Dr Lim Wee Kiak, the Member of Parliament for Sembawang GRC, said that the boy is the youngest of four children and that his mother is a widow. The 39-year-old man is her friend. The other three children are living with their grandmother in Woodlands, Dr Lim added.

Yesterday, about 6.44pm, the police received a call about the incident, but the man refused to open the door to officers.

Officers from Ang Mo Kio Division, Crisis Negotiation Unit and Special Operations Command were involved in managing the incident.

Miss Rosli, 36, said her mother heard shouting from the unit at about 5pm on Tuesday. Two women were shouting, through a window, at a man and telling him to release the boy. The women said the boy had not gone to school for a few days, and his teacher had called. The women left around 9pm, she said. Miss Rosli added that her mother, 57, had heard the child crying.

A male resident, who declined to be named, said: "Generally, we get disturbances here. I don’t know the people but you can hear shouting sometimes. It is normal here.”

Resident Nurul Firdaus, 22, who does not know the family personally, said the households in the block were "mostly not that open”. "We ... do our own things,” said the account assistant, who lives on the 18th storey of the block. Nurul added that she does not speak to her neighbours often and conversations were typically "hi-bye only”.

The mother of a three-year-old girl said the incident "scares” her and raises concerns about the safety of her daughter. — TODAY