The discovery of an aerial bomb weighing around 100 kilograms was reported by CNA on September 24, 2023. The news spread around Singapore very quickly after the channel reported it.
The Singapore Police Force (SPF) was made aware of the discovery on September 20 during excavation work on the site. The Singapore Armed Force (SAF)'s explosive ordnance disposal team had assessed that it would be unsafe to move the bomb.
The SAF had only one option — engaging on-site disposal.
That was exactly what happened on September 26, 2023.
The bomb.
The bomb was a World War II relic found at a construction site of the Myst condominium along Bukit Timah Road.
"The bomb is likely to be a 'type 94' that was used by the Japanese," said Winson Chew, an explosive ordnance disposal (EOD) specialist with Blastwork Solutions.
It was crucial that the EOD specialists found out what fuses and explosive components the bomb contained.
Things became more complicated after knowing that the bomb had been buried for a long time. This made the bomb highly unstable. A long period of exposure to wetness caused corrosion on the body of the aerial bomb, thus affecting the bomb's fuses.
Thankfully, SAF's EOD unit, the 36th Battalion of the Singapore Combat Engineers (36SCE), had prior experience detonating a bomb on-site.
In 2019, a 50 kilogram aerial bomb was found in River Valley, also during excavation works at a construction site. Similarly, it was assessed to be unsafe to move and had to be disposed of on-site.
Back in 2020, a projectile believed to be a war relic was found in the Thomson area. A year after that, a similar case was uncovered at Lorong 12 Geylang. The projectiles were still safe to move, so the ammunitions were transported to another location for disposal.
Here's a rough timeline of how things went down.
Evacuation.
According to CNA's reports, a 200-meter cordon was placed around the bomb disposal site, affecting an estimated 4,000 people living and working in the area. Places vacated included several condominiums, such as The Linear, Hazel Park, Bukit 828, and Hazel Park Terrace.
Other affected places included Housing Board block 154 Gangsa Road, shophouses 778 to 822 Upper Bukit Timah Road, and Greenridge Secondary School.
Many residents started evacuating the area in the early hours of the morning. Prior to that, authorities conducted townhalls and meetings with residents to advise them about what needed to be done.
Residents were told to leave their homes before 8 a.m. and to stick a green strip of paper on their front door when they left. This green strip was provided by the police to assist authorities in accounting for residents in a building.
To accommodate residents who needed shelter during the evacuation, a team from the People's Association came together to turn Senja-Cashew Community Club into a safe haven for the time being.
They had prepared four areas in the community club, namely for families with children or seniors, those who needed a place to work or study, those with pets, and all other affected residents.
As evacuation commenced, police set up barriers around the danger zone and slowly sealed off the affected radius for safety measures.
Around 10.50 a.m., authorities were ready to stop all traffic from entering the stretch between Cashew and Bukit Panjang MRT.
Roads were closed to traffic from 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. at the Bukit Panjang Flyover (between Woodlands Road and Petir Road) and at Upper Bukit Timah Road (between Petir Road and Cashew Road).
Detonation.
The controlled bomb detonation was scheduled to commence at 11.30 a.m.. Around 12.30 p.m., the first explosion happened. The blast left residents outside of the radius in shock.
It was not over. A second detonation was expected to take place. Armed personnel were seen entering the bomb site once again around half-an-hour later.
The second detonation hit with a bang, causing sandbags to fly out of the bomb barricade.
At 1.45 p.m., police confirmed that the war relic had been successfully disposed of.
Safe and sound.
Before residents could return to the comforts of their homes, they had to wait for an 'all-clear' from the authorities.
After roughly nine hours of waiting, residents were informed that they could return to their homes. Restrictions were slowly lifted and barricades were removed from walkways and roads.
The SAF’s Explosive Ordnance Disposal (EOD) Engineers successfully disposed of a 100kg World War II relic earlier today after the unexploded ordnance was recently discovered along Bukit Timah Road. pic.twitter.com/5BPdwTApcO — Ministry of Defence (@mindefsg) September 26, 2023
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