SINGAPORE — A section of East Coast Park beach was closed
off to swimmers today (July 12) due to an "oil slick", the National
Environment Agency (NEA) said.
Twitter user Gurmit Singh
(@gurms) first alerted TODAY to the incident. Mr Singh said that
there was a “smell of petrol in the air”.
An NEA spokesman said it was
notified at around 1.45pm of the oil slick. Officers who arrived
later at the site found the area near the rock bund and shoreline
of Area C3 East Coast Beach to be affected.
The oil patch measured
approximately 10m by 5m, said the spokesman and a 100m stretch of
the beach was temporarily closed to beach-goers as contractors
commenced a clean-up of the affected area.
A Maritime and Port Authority
of Singapore (MPA) spokesman also said it had been informed of the
sighting.
The MPA "did not receive any
report of oil spill from ships", the spokesman said.
When TODAY went down to the
scene, a sign had already been put up warning beach-goers of
“contaminated” waters.
-- TODAYonline