Maid dies after being pinned under church lift

A Filipino maid who died after a lift in a church came crashing down on her was given a send-off - in that very church on Monday.

Ms Clarita Abanes, 46, was seriously hurt in the freak accident at the Catholic Church of St Michael off Serangoon Road, and had been in a coma. She died last Thursday.

Police and Singapore Civil Defence Force officers told The Straits Times that when they arrived at the scene at about 8pm on May 16, they found her trapped, unconscious, under the lift.

With her was a second casualty - a woman in her 70s similarly trapped, but conscious. She is still in hospital, but little is known about her.