Terrified diners scream and jump onto tables after monitor lizard invades Punggol coffee shop

A wandering monitor lizard scared the living daylights out of several diners who were happily enjoying their meal at this coffee shop right next to a waterway in Punggol. 

The confused creature was seen scrambling around the coffee shop in a TikTok video uploaded on Friday (Jan 13) by Johnson Ooi. 

The animal first approached a woman whose legs were seen propped up on a chair. A man standing nearby stomped his foot and banged another chair loudly in an attempt to chase the creature away.

The unaffected reptile then moved deeper into the coffee shop and in response, some of the diners screamed and jumped off their seats.

One man was even seen cowering on top of a table and he looked on in fear as the creature approached him. He later jumped off the table and scooted off to safety elsewhere. 

Another woman then made a feeble attempt to chase away the lizard with a broom by sweeping it in the creature's direction. 

In the captions, Ooi explained that as the food court is next to the water, the monitor lizard may have tried to take shelter there from the rain. 

AsiaOne has reached out to Ooi for more details. 

In the comments, multiple amused netizens joked that the reptile was just there to buy food. 

However, some pitied the monitor lizard and were upset that people used brooms and sticks to chase away it away. 

In November last year, several civets sneaked into the homes of residents at Jalan Chempaka Puteh in Bedok. 

One even hid in a cabinet and the kitchen of a man's home. 

To deal with these pesky animals, he bought a cage to trap them three years ago — a solution that he describes as a "last resort", to prevent the civet cats from damaging his home.

In the past few years, he has caught six civets in his home. 

ALSO READ: Woman catches macaques sneaking into her toilet

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