"THE MOMENT" AT NICOLL HIGHWAY
written by: Insp Norlinda Ismail
posted on: 16 May 2004
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I was patrolling at Marina South when DOR called and informed me that there is an explosion behind Concourse. Immediately I went to the location to render assistance to Rochor NPC. When I was nearing Raffles Avenue, I could see a crowd started to build up near the Merdeka Bridge. I carried on driving, and at the same time, tried looking for an explosion site and police cars. I could see none of those.

Suddenly, at Raffles Avenue, Gate 9, one Chinese and one Caucasian man, with their safety helmets on, waved at me. I stopped the car, stepped out of my car and to my amazement, I saw a hole as big as two basketball courts, as they let me to the site. My heart sank!

Nearby, was an an Indian foreign worker, lying on the floor and suffered facial injuries. I quickly called for ambulance and reinforcement. My next action was to effect a cordon, but unfortunately, TL car does not carry any equipment. My recorder and I had to chase away literally, any passers-by from entering the site, while we wait for reinforcement. We also faced difficulties to chase away the workers from the site. Since then, I had learnt to bring a cordon wherever I go.

I then tried to gather as much facts as possible. Though the situation is very chaotic, some structural engineers came forward and gave their account of what had happened that morning and how they had been trying to rectify the problem. DOR was at that time very busy with influx of calls and could not take any facts. I then directed my recorder to key in all facts gathered into the MDT.

Meanwhile, I directed A2R1D to block out Rafles Avenue. SCDF and SOC came and assisted. Since then, my role was mostly coordinating with SOC in crowd control and with SCDF for any new developments.

The next phase of the operations was smooth when HOT and Comdr came to give directions.