'War relic' found at Geylang construction site
An explosive object, with origins yet to be determined, was found at a construction site located at 60, Geylang Lorong 23 on July 23, 2019.
SINGAPORE — On Tuesday (July 23) morning, Mr Sarkar Sueash, 43, discovered something unusual at the construction site along Geylang Lorong 23.
His team from Trust Build Engineering & Construction firm was working on an industrial building project.
The senior supervisor immediately notified his site engineer, Mr Arun Karthick, 28, of the unidentified object that was found 500m in the ground at 9am.
Mr Arun told TODAY that it seemed like something “irrelevant” at first.
“We used the excavation machine to bring it up to look at it closer and it looked something like an explosive.
“We later called our safety officer and he came at about 9.45am and he called the police,” Mr Arun added.
The site was already cordoned off by the police when TODAY arrived at the site in the afternoon, and there were fences barricading the area.
A staff member from a third-party handler, Blastwork Solutions, a company specialising in explosive ordnance disposal, was there to survey the area.
He told TODAY that the object could have been a war relic dating back to the Japanese Occupation, although its origins still could not be confirmed.
He also said that the relic was cleared and safe for handling, and they were waiting for the Ministry of Defence (Mindef) to decide on the location to store the object, before they could start moving it.
Earlier at about 10.15am, the police had already arrived to inspect the item.
They later called on the Singapore Armed Forces (SAF) to check if the explosive object was still live.
Mr Arun said that SAF personnel reached the site at around 10.45am.
The construction team as well as the neighbouring building were evacuated for safety after Blastworks Solutions arrived to inspect the area.
A security officer from Trust Build Engineering & Corporation, who gave his name only as Mr Subari, said that this happens “quite often in construction”, but this was his “first time” encountering such a situation, so he was “shocked” when he first found out about it.
Another personnel at the site, who did not want to be identified, told TODAY that after Blastworks Solutions had surveyed the area, Explomo Technical Services — a certified company for explosive disposal — came to move the relic.
An ordnance and explosive disposal team from Explomo reached the premises at around 6pm and started moving the relic at about 7pm.
