'Still in shock': 60-year-old passerby says lucky to escape injury after shop wall at Yew Tee MRT Station collapses

SINGAPORE — As 60-year-old Sakthimogan Sinnakannu was walking past an empty shop undergoing renovation at the Yew Tee MRT train station on Christmas morning (Dec 25), he heard a loud crack before a metal barrier at the shop’s entrance came crashing down. 

“I was just walking slowly then I heard this loud sound like a bomb blast. I think all the bricks (inside the shop) gave way so it pressured the metal wall to collapse,” he told TODAY over a phone interview the day after. 

Mr Sinnakannu, who works as a logistics officer, was around the area with his wife for their fortnightly grocery run at Yew Tee Market next to the MRT station.

He was alone at the time as his wife was still buying some items from the market. 

They live in a Housing and Development Board (HDB) flat about a 10-minute walk from the market. 

Part of the barrier hit his trolley first, which was in between him and the shop. 

Upon realising what was happening, Mr Sinnakannu quickly threw himself back just in the nick of time, narrowly escaping being crushed. 

This resulted in him falling backwards, though he was able to break the fall with his hands, thus avoiding hitting his head. 

“I was so shocked and I panicked after that,” he said.

Mr Sinnakannu said that officers from the Singapore Civil Defence Force (SCDF) arrived shortly after and he was taken to the emergency department at Ng Teng Fong Hospital in Jurong East. 

SCDF told TODAY that it received a call for assistance at 21 Choa Chu Kang North 6 at about 12.10pm. 

Mr Sinnakannu did not suffer any injuries and was discharged on the same day.   

In response to TODAY's queries, Mr Ang Hang Guan, the senior vice-president of rail maintenance at SMRT Trains, said that the incident happened within a shop premise that it leased out to Ananas Food Market. 

The tenant is "currently carrying out renovation works and reported that an inner wall had collapsed," said Mr Ang.

“Renovations in the shop premises have been suspended and the area around the shop has also been cordoned off as a safety precaution.”

He added that the train service at Yew Tee MRT Station was unaffected. 

When TODAY visited the area on Monday evening, the debris had been cleared and another temporary wall was put up. 

Mr Alvin Wong, 30, a staff member at mobile phone shop EgoMe located opposite the affected unit said that workers had been carrying out renovation works there at the time of the accident. 

“When the wall collapsed, the workers inside were so shocked,” Mr Wong said.

Mr Sinnakannu's niece, 26-year-old T Sangitha, who works as a financial consultant, also happened to be around the area when the accident happened. 

She had seen the wall collapse but only realised a while later that the man who had fallen was her uncle. 

"I definitely panicked, it's my first time witnessing such an accident and it happened to someone close so I didn't know how to react," she said.

Mr Sinnakannu said that he is thankful he escaped unscathed but is still recovering from the shock. 

“I couldn’t sleep last night. I was still thinking about how the wall had fallen from the entrance. Luckily, I was not inside, if not the whole thing would have been on my body,” he said. ADDITIONAL REPORTING BY LEONARD LEONG