WWII Bomb Relic Discovered

By Liew Hanqing

POLICE and soldiers were roaming the area. And traffic was diverted. Another drill? No.

A World War II relic had been found at a construction site near the junction of Clementi Road and Commonwealth Avenue West on Monday evening, and the police weren't taking any chances.

Traffic was diverted from the vicinity to facilitate operations to detonate it.

Nan Hua High School, which is just next to the construction site, decided to ask the students to leave early as a precaution.

Students Zen Young and Quek Hou Joo, both 13, told The New Paper that they were alerted when an announcement was made over the public address system.

Said Hou Joo: 'The teachers told us that something serious had happened and that we were to go home immediately.'

Zen added his first thought was whether it could have been a bomb threat.

'I wasn't really scared, more like excited. Of course, we got to go home a bit earlier,' he said.

On the road, a couple on their way home from the airport were stuck in a massive traffic jam near Commonwealth.

When Mr Gary Lim, 36, approached his block at Commonwealth Avenue West, he saw a row of police vehicles.

'I thought a minor crime had been committed,' said Mr Lim, a financial adviser.

A long-time resident of the estate, a retiree who wanted to be known as Mr Foo, 68, said he wasn't too concerned when police officers started showing up at the estate on Monday evening.

He added that even when he left home yesterday morning, there weren't many police officers around.

'But I was slightly worried when more police officers appeared in the evening, together with the soldiers,' he said.

Heard from neighbours

He had heard from neighbours that a bomb had been discovered at the construction site.

A retiree who only wanted to be known as Mr Loh, 70, had been following the action keenly from his 25th-storey flat, which has a good view of the construction site.

At about 5.35pm yesterday, he was jolted by a loud 'boom'. He recalled: 'There was some black smoke coming up from below a pile of sandbags.

'The sandbags were still intact, so it doesn't look like the explosion was big.'

A police spokesman said the war relic was detonated at 5.35pm yesterday and that all traffic diversions were lifted.

The spokesman added that police were notified at 5.50pm on Monday evening that the relic had been found at the site, but advised the public not to be alarmed.

This article was first published in The New Paper.

Photos by: MHJ Stills