Tremors of earthquake felt yesterday

SINGAPORE: Singaporeans island—wide literally felt the earth move under their feet as tremors shook the island in areas as diverse as Redhill in central Singapore to the northeast of the country like Pasir Ris.

This, after a powerful earthquake of magnitude 7.6 hit Indonesia.

Singapore’s Meteorological Services confirmed that the earthquake hit at about 6.15 pm this evening in the waters off Southern Sumatra about 530 kilometres from Singapore.

Minutes later, MediaCorp’s news hotlines started ringing as Singaporeans reported feeling tremors that lasted anywhere between 30 seconds and a few minutes.

Police and SCDF said they received more than 150 calls about the quake.

Videos sent in by viewers showed chandeliers swaying, as were other objects.

The calls came from across the island — Ang Mo Kio in the central , Marine Parade in the east, Punggol in the northeast and Raffles Place, in the central business district.

Callers said that some workers in the Suntec area and Changi Business Park were evacuated.

One man said: "There were a lot of office people on the roadside. We felt it for about five to ten minutes."

Others said their neighbours were screaming and shouting.

Rajakumar Choppa who works at Expo Changi Business Park, said: “Around 6 pm, we felt some kind of a building shake. I felt it three times actually and then we all stood up and rushed downstairs because there was some fire alarm in the building.

“When we got downstairs, there was a crowd. We were all watching and not knowing what was happening. I was able to see the building literally shaking.”

Callers also reported jams in the Causeway area as the bridge was shaking.

Experts MediaCorp spoke to said the situation was bad.

Professor Kerry Sieh, professor of Geology, Earth Observatory of Singapore, NTU, said: "It’s definitely getting worse. The earthquake sequence began in 2000 with a 7.9 about 800 km away from the south of Singapore. You haven’t felt this big of a sequence of earthquakes that is many large earthquakes for at least 175 years."

A tsunami warning was initially issued after the quake but later withdrawn. — CNA/vm