WHEN a tent was set up at the Palawan Beach at Sentosa yesterday, passers-by thought someone was camping there despite the slight drizzle.

Student David Liu, 18, who just finished his lesson at the Tourism Academy at Sentosa, did not realise that the tent was put up by the police because a woman's body had washed ashore there.

'I thought someone was having some kind of activity, pitching a tent or something' he said.

Along with some classmates, the group decided to go to the beach to take a break after their lessons.

'If my friends hadn't pointed out the police officers, I wouldn't have noticed' David added.

Police said they received a call at 11am, after someone spotted the body on the beach.

The victim, a 53-year-old Chinese Singaporean, wore a brown sweat shirt and a pair of blue, three-quarter pants. Police are in the process of notifying her next-of-kin.

A staff member at one of the food outlets along Palawan Beach had alerted the island's Beach Patrol of the incident.

When asked, the staff member, who declined to be named, said that they were just about to open for business then.

'At about 10.50am, my colleagues alerted me to a guest lying on the beach. It was odd as it was raining during that time' the staff member said.

From where he was then, he thought that the woman was resting there.

'Only after I was about 50m away from her that I realised that she was dead.

'I immediately informed the lifeguards (Beach Patrol).'

Beach Patrol subsequently alerted the rangers who called the police. When The New Paper visited the scene, the beach was empty apart from one family and two groups of students.

Ms Mary Cajahuanca, an intepreter who was at Palawan Beach with a friend and her children, was also unaware of the incident.

'When we came, it was all covered up already. We don't know what happened. Perhaps we were too engrossed in looking after the children' she said.

Police are investigating and have classified the case as unnatural death.

- Eoin Ee, newsroom intern.