No reports so far of any S'porean injured in Japan
quake: MFA
SINGAPORE : Singapore's Ministry of Foreign Affairs
(MFA) said there are no reports so far of any Singaporean injured
in the 8.9-magnitude earthquake which struck off Japan's coast on
Friday.
The ministry said the Singapore Embassy in Tokyo has
activated the Emergency Contact Network (ECN) system, and will
continue to contact registered Singaporeans in affected
areas.
Channel NewsAsia was in touch with some Singaporeans
living or working in Japan on Friday.
29-year old Singaporean engineer Abel Li, who is in Yokohama city,
said the electricity supply was cut off when the earthquake
struck.
Mr Li, who is on work attachment there with two other Singaporeans,
said they all ducked under the table for safety and were safely
evacuated from the building.
He said: "When we walked down the stairs, we could see a lot of the
ceiling panels dropping, (and) there were a lot of the cracks on
the wall. And even outside, after the quake, you could still see
the signboards and the building swaying quite a bit.
"The traffic signals are out, so there are traffic jams almost
everywhere. The telephone signals are quite intermittent, so you
could see a lot of Japanese colleagues who are trying to call back
their friends and families - it was very hard to get
through."
Those in Tokyo also felt the tremors.
30-year old Singaporean Rita Pang, who was in her office in
Roppongi district, said she had to walk home as the trains stopped
operating.
She said: "It does happen pretty often, that we have this kind of
swaying and shakes, but usually they end pretty soon, like within a
minute. But this time, the building started shaking and swaying for
a long while. And it got worse by the minute.
"So after about 5 minutes or so, they finally made an announcement
through the building (PA system) to ask us to go down and get
evacuated from the building."
Ms Pang has since stocked up on food and water in case there are
aftershocks.
24-year-old Singaporean student Amanda Lin was in a subway train
when the incident happened. She said she went to a cafe next to a
park to wait out the tremors.
"The train started swaying, but all of us thought it was just a
normal, regular earthquake because it happens quite often. But then
it started to move very violently, (and) people started grabbing
onto the poles. And it actually stopped for about 15 minutes before
it crawled to the next station," she added.
Japan's north-eastern region of Sendai bore the brunt of the
tsunami.
In an email to Channel NewsAsia, Singaporean Melissa Heng - who is
working as a teacher there - said the situation is very bad. She
said there is massive damage to the school and the "aftershocks are
scary".
Ms Heng said she is holding up with colleagues and students in a
shelter. Her email read: "Situation in Sendai very bad.
Temperatures sub-zero and snowing. Massive damage in school. I
haven't been out in the streets, but the aftershocks are just as
scary.
"I'm in shelter now with colleagues and students - no signal, water
or electricity. But I'm safe. Earlier I heard magnitude in Miyagi -
which is the prefecture that Sendai is in - was 7.9. Sendai airport
was shutdown. But I have no information where I am. We all just
want to get through this unhurt."
At least 300 Singaporeans are currently on holiday in Japan.
CTC Travel said its four tour groups in Tokyo and Hokkaido are
safe. The company has not received any tour cancellations to Japan
as yet.
Alicia Seah, senior vice-president, Marketing, CTC Travel, said:
"We have almost 1,000 customers who will be departing from tomorrow
onwards till the early part of April. To date, we have not received
any cancellations, but there are calls of concern."
Chan Brothers said its six tour groups of 160 people across Japan
are not affected by the quake.
Scheduled fights have been affected. Singapore Airlines said it had
to cancel one flight (SQ634) to Japan's Haneda airport that was
supposed to depart at 3.40pm. Passengers were already on board when
they were informed that the flight could not take off, and had to
disembark.
SIA said it has arranged accommodations for affected passengers not
living in Singapore.
MFA said it is closely monitoring the situation and will render
necessary consular assistance to affected Singaporeans.
Singaporeans who require assistance are advised to contact the
Singapore Embassy in Tokyo or the MFA Duty Officer at:
Embassy of the Republic of Singapore
Tel: +81-90-3208-4122 / +81-90-2435-5543
Email: [email protected]
Ministry of Foreign Affairs
Tel: +65-6379-8800, +65-6379-8855
- CNA/al
