Section of East Coast Park beach closed due to 'oil slick'

SINGAPORE —  A section of East Coast Park beach was closed off to swimmers today (July 12) due to an "oil slick", the National Environment Agency (NEA) said.

Twitter user Gurmit Singh (@gurms) first alerted TODAY to the incident. Mr Singh said that there was a “smell of petrol in the air”. 

An NEA spokesman said it was notified at around 1.45pm of the oil slick. Officers who arrived later at the site found the area near the rock bund and shoreline of Area C3 East Coast Beach to be affected.

The oil patch measured approximately 10m by 5m, said the spokesman and a 100m stretch of the beach was temporarily closed to beach-goers as contractors commenced a clean-up of the affected area.

A Maritime and Port Authority of Singapore (MPA) spokesman also said it had been informed of the sighting.

The MPA "did not receive any report of oil spill from ships", the spokesman said.

When TODAY went down to the scene, a sign had already been put up warning beach-goers of “contaminated” waters.