EXCLUSIVE CHOA CHU KANG BUS
SCARE
Passengers flee as white fumes fill bus
By Teh Jen Lee
TNP, 9 February 2006
TO office administrator Grace, it was just another morning rush
hour.
Soon after she boarded service 190 from Choa Chu Kang interchange
at around 8.30 am, she plugged on her earphones to listen to the
radio.
The ride to her workplace in Somerset was long and the music
helped.
The bus was not crowded, with only around a dozen passengers.
As she made herself comfortable near the middle part of the bus, a
drama was beginning to unfold.
A male passenger boarded the bus at the second stop. He carried two
shopping bags.
The man quickly moved to the back of the bus and left at least one
of his packages there.
Passengers on board said he then walked to the door, apparently to
get off.
But before the bus could come to a stop, there was a soft thud -
the sound of something bursting in the bag.
Seconds later, white smoke began to billow out.
Grace, 35, did not hear the soft thud. But before she realised, she
found herself engulfed in smoke.
The fumes quickly filled the air-conditioned bus.
The bus driver stopped the bus at Choa Chu Kang Avenue 4 and opened
the doors, releasing billowing white fumes into the morning
air.
He shouted for the passengers to get out. The first to leave, said
the passengers, was the man who left the bag behind.
Grace struggled to breathe. She could hardly see anything because
of the smoke.
She said: 'I felt choked. My nose was running.
'The smoke stung my eyes, and I had tears. It was like cutting
onions, but much much worse.'
The other passengers were also red-eyed and teary. All of them were
coughing, including the bus driver.
Added Grace: 'The smoke hit me first, then I heard passengers
shouting to the bus driver about the smoke.
'We had stopped at a traffic junction so the driver immediately
opened the doors and told all passengers to get off.'
Most of the passengers were in office attire. But there were also a
few school children in uniform.
Grace was stunned.
'I panicked at first. I didn't know what happened, I just got off
like the others.
'Only when I was out did I pick up pieces of info from the excited
conversation around me,' she said.
She said another female passenger, in her 20s, had told her that
she had seen a medium-built man in his 30s boarding the bus at the
second stop.
She said the woman told her the man tried to get off at the third
stop.
'But before he could, the smoke was coming out already,' she
said.
'I didn't hear anything as I was listening to my radio, but the
other passengers said there was a soft thud before the smoke came
out.'
The man, who looked Chinese, was wearing a brown polo T-shirt and
sunglasses.
He is believed to have been the first to get off the bus when the
doors opened.
Everything happened so fast that no one went after him.
Grace said: 'He disappeared and couldn't be found. Another bus came
to pick us up within five minutes.
'But no one told us whether we had been exposed to some chemical
that could affect us later.'
Within 10 minutes, police patrol cars and fire engines rushed to
the scene.
A team from the hazardous material (Hazmat) unit of the Singapore
Civil Defence Force (SCDF) boarded the bus in special suits and
checked for traces of chemicals and biological agents.
They gave the all-clear after checking the suspicious package and
placing it in a plastic bin with a tight seal.
The police cordoned off the area, waving away curious
onlookers.
MYSTERY MAN LEAVES BAGS ON BUS
A man reportedly boards service 190 shortly after it leaves Choa
Chu Kang interchange. One female passenger says he boarded the bus
at the second stop.
The man is carrying two paper bags.
He leaves the two bags near the back of the bus and immediately
proceeds to alight at the third stop.
BURSTING SOUND, THEN WHITE FUMES POUR OUT OF
BAG
Before the man can get off, one of the bags starts to emit dense
white fumes. The fumes permeate the bus, causing passengers to
panic and choke.
PASSENGERS PANIC, MYSTERY MAN FIRST TO GET
OUT
The bus driver opens the door to let out the fumes and orders
everyone to leave.
The man is reportedly the first to get away and vanishes in the
panic that ensues.
Passengers are coughing and their eyes are tearing from the fumes,
which is understood to be chemical in nature.
No one is taken to hospital.
TNP-EXCLUSIVE CHOA
CHU KANG BUS SCARE
