SINGAPORE : Its contents - a perfume sachet and some red
beads - turned out to be harmless, but for about three hours on
Stevens Road on Wednesday morning, a motorcycle box found under a
tree got the attention of security personnel.
Police cars lined up on the corner of Stevens Road and Stevens
Close - an area occupied by residences and the Israeli Embassy -
along with vehicles marked “chem-bio radiological defence” and
“explosive ordnance disposal”.
The area was cordoned off.
In a statement later, the police said the articles had been seized
for further investigation, “with a view to establishing the owners
of the items”. They declined to reveal who had made the call
reporting the box at about 8.20am.
Residents in the area TODAY spoke to were mostly bewildered by the
commotion.
“As we were leaving the house this morning (at around 9am), we saw
police cars parked along the road, but nobody told us what was
happening,” said one couple living on Stevens Close.
Upon their return around noon, they asked the officers present what
had happened, and were told: “Nothing to worry about, you can go
home now.”
Others said that police officers had come by to tell them they
could not drive out for the time being as the area had been
cordoned off.
Another resident, who was driving back home at around 11am, was
told she could not enter the area.
“They told me there was ‘immediate danger’ in the area, so I
couldn’t drive in,” she said. “So, I had to drive around a bit to
kill time.”
When approached, officers outside the embassy said “nothing was
happening and everything was fine”. - TODAY/ra