<p>Singapore Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong today said there is no reason to believe the Little India riot - the city-state's worst outbreak of violence in over 40 years for which 33 Indians have been charged - was due to unhappiness among foreign workers.<br /><br /></p>.<p>Sunday's incident was "spontaneous" and the migrant workers involved were employed by a variety of companies and lived in different places, he told reporters in Tokyo on the sidelines of a summit.<br /><br />Asked to comment on suggestions that a possible cause of the riot was pent-up tensions among foreign workers in Singapore, Lee said: "We have not seen any evidence of that. The riot happened spontaneously, it was localised.<br /><br />"The people who were involved in the riot were not from one company, or one dorm; (they were from) several dorms, many different companies, and it is unlikely that all the companies will have the same problem."<br /><br />Lee said there were some signs that alcohol was a factor, The Strait Times reported.The trouble began after a bus fatally knocked down an Indian pedestrian, 33-year-old Sakthivel Kuaravelu, in Little India, a precinct of Indian-origin businesses, eateries and pubs frequented by most South Asian workers on Sunday.<br /><br />Around 400 South Asian migrant workers were involved in the rampage that left 39 police and civil defence staff injured and 25 vehicles damaged.<br /><br />Thirty-three Indian nationals have so far been arrested and charged in court for alleged rioting. <br /></p>
<p>Singapore Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong today said there is no reason to believe the Little India riot - the city-state's worst outbreak of violence in over 40 years for which 33 Indians have been charged - was due to unhappiness among foreign workers.<br /><br /></p>.<p>Sunday's incident was "spontaneous" and the migrant workers involved were employed by a variety of companies and lived in different places, he told reporters in Tokyo on the sidelines of a summit.<br /><br />Asked to comment on suggestions that a possible cause of the riot was pent-up tensions among foreign workers in Singapore, Lee said: "We have not seen any evidence of that. The riot happened spontaneously, it was localised.<br /><br />"The people who were involved in the riot were not from one company, or one dorm; (they were from) several dorms, many different companies, and it is unlikely that all the companies will have the same problem."<br /><br />Lee said there were some signs that alcohol was a factor, The Strait Times reported.The trouble began after a bus fatally knocked down an Indian pedestrian, 33-year-old Sakthivel Kuaravelu, in Little India, a precinct of Indian-origin businesses, eateries and pubs frequented by most South Asian workers on Sunday.<br /><br />Around 400 South Asian migrant workers were involved in the rampage that left 39 police and civil defence staff injured and 25 vehicles damaged.<br /><br />Thirty-three Indian nationals have so far been arrested and charged in court for alleged rioting. <br /></p>