China urged its citizens today to respect Singapore’s laws after footage of a deadly car crash caused by a Chinese expatriate driving a Ferrari drew more than one million hits on YouTube.

“We are saddened and regret this unfortunate accident,” Wen Penghui, the Chinese embassy’s first secretary, said in a letter published on the Straits Times newspaper’s forum page.

“We hope that Chinese citizens living in Singapore will respect life, value the safety of themselves and others, abide by its laws and regulations, and live responsibly and gracefully,” the Chinese diplomat said.

Chinese immigrants and workers in Singapore have come under scathing attack since Saturday’s pre-dawn accident in which the Chinese Ferrari driver, a Singaporean cabbie and a Japanese taxi passenger were all killed.

Dramatic footage of the crash, taken by a camera on the dashboard of another taxi, showed 31-year-old Ferrari driver, financial adviser Ma Chi, speeding through a red light several seconds after the signal had changed.

One online reader said he had calculated from the video that the Ferrari may have been travelling in excess of 180kph.

Footage of the accident posted on video-sharing site YouTube had attracted more than 1.27 million hits by this afternoon.

Even Singapore Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong was forced to comment on the issue.

He said on his Facebook page that he was “deeply saddened by the unfortunate loss of lives” and supported an earlier statement by his deputy, Teo Chee Hean, that Singaporeans “shouldn’t blame all foreigners for this”.

Wen in his letter, which was originally written in Chinese, according to a separate report by the newspaper, said: “We offer our sincere and deep condolences to the victims and their families."

“We hope that such tragic and unfortunate incidents will not recur.”

The crash instantly killed Ma, while the taxi passenger, a 41-year-old Japanese woman, died in hospital two hours later, according to the police.

The 52-year-old local cabbie died of his injuries a day later.

Calming anti-foreigner sentiment

The statement by the Chinese embassy had little effect in calming anti-foreigner online comments by disgruntled locals, many of whom seized the incident as another reason to attack the government’s immigration polices.

Some accuse foreigners - who make up almost a third of Singapore’s 5.2 million people - of pushing up living costs, straining public transport and stealing jobs, with mainland Chinese bearing the brunt of attacks.

“Chinese embassy should encourage their citizens to go home and contribute to their motherland,” said a reader named ‘Gilman’ on Yahoo! Singapore’s website.

“We don’t really need PRC (People’s Republic of China) contribution in Singapore. We can handle it on our own here,” he added.

- AFP