Singapore Prime Minister Taken Ill During Speech

SINGAPORE—Singapore Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong was taken ill during an event commemorating the country's independence late Sunday and left the stage part way through his speech to receive medical attention.

During an extended speech broadcast live on local television channels, Mr. Lee stopped speaking, stumbled and gripped his lectern before being escorted off the stage. He had been speaking for more than an hour in Malay and Chinese before the English segment of his speech, during which he was taken ill.

After a break of a little more than an hour Mr. Lee returned to the stage to complete his speech. In a statement on Twitter, his office said his condition wasn't serious, and he was feeling unsteady because of "prolonged standing, heat and dehydration." It said he hadn't suffered a stroke and his heart was fine.

"The doctors have assessed he is fine," said Tharman Shanmugaratnam, one of Singapore's deputy prime ministers, during a break in the proceedings.

Mr. Lee, 64 years old, was diagnosed with prostate cancer last year and went through an operation to treat the condition that his office said went smoothly. In the early 1990s he was treated for lymphoma.

When he returned to the stage, Mr. Lee said he would have a full medical checkup after completing his speech. "Thank you for waiting for me; I gave everybody a scare," he said to applause.

Mr. Lee skipped one part of his speech about plans for an elected presidency in Singapore, addressing instead the issue of succession in his ruling People's Action Party, which has ruled uninterrupted for more than five decades. He said that ensuring a capable new generation of leaders is a priority for him and that a new prime minister must be ready to take over soon after the next general election. Under Singapore law, the next election must take place before January 2021.

The prime minister's annual National Day Rally speech is held shortly after Aug. 9, the date Singapore celebrates its independence. Singapore became an independent country in 1965 after a short but unsuccessful merger with its northern neighbor Malaysia.

Mr. Lee took office in 2004, when he became Singapore's third prime minister. His father, Lee Kuan Yew, was the country's first leader after independence in 1965 and is widely credited with turning the city-state into a global financial powerhouse during his 31 years in office. The senior Mr. Lee died in March last year.

Write to Jake Maxwell Watts at jake.watts@wsj.com and P.R. Venkat at venkat.pr@wsj.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

August 21, 2016 21:55 ET (01:55 GMT)

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