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SINGAPORE : Downtown Shenton Way with its many skyscrapers was affected by the massive earthquake which struck off the western coast of Indonesia's Sumatra island.
Many office workers were evacuated at the first signs of vertigo.
Apparently the tremors were felt in many buildings in the Central Business District - stretching all the way from Battery Road to Market Street and on to Robinson Road.
When the tremors were first felt, many workers evacuated themselves from the buildings.
And for a while the roads were filled with people all trying to make their way to open spaces for their safety. Traffic also came to a stand still as the cars tried to leave the Central Business District.
One childcare education centre had to end their lessons two hours early.
Huang Fang, Childcare Education Teacher in AEC Building, said: "I was conducting a class with 30 over students. Then some students said, Teacher, it's shaking very badly. I turned around and saw the blackboard, lamps all swaying. So I told all the students to pack their things and to leave for an open space."
"We had to rush. We never thought of anything else. But only thing we were wondering was where to stand, everywhere is buildings... we really didn't know where to stand," said Binish Gopal, who works in Robinson Tower.
Umbrellas provided some protection for those milling around when debris came falling from the Robinson Tower.
Tina Lee, Eyewitness, said: "The rock just fell off from there and everyone just evacuated from the building shortly after that. We saw a lot of people evacuating from these 2 buildings and shortly after there were jams."
Eye witnesses said the evacuation took place calmly and there was no panic.
Some buildings sounded warnings to alert workers who were still in the building to leave.
Security guards were also sent out to check for cracks in buildings. - CNA/ch
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