Unattended bags cause panic at Queen Street Bus Terminal and Woodlands Checkpoint

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An honorable member of the Coffee Shop Has Just Posted the Following:

There was a brief panic at the Queen Street Bus Terminal last Friday (Jan 15) at around 6.30pm when an unattended bag triggered a bomb scare among the crowd.
The incident happened a day before Stomper Vinesh found an unattended bag and a bottle of detergent in the middle of the road at Jurong West Avenue 4.
A Lianhe Wanbao reader, Xu Wei Lin, told the Chinese evening daily that he heard someone at Queen Street Bus Terminal asking the crowd frantically: "Whose bag does this belong to?"
After ascertaining that the suspicious bag did not belong to anybody, the evening crowd started to back away from the unattended bag, Mr Xu told the Lianhe Wanbao.
"The Jakarta bombing was still fresh in everybody's mind," Mr Xu said. "It wasn't long before someone called the police." The police told AsiaOne that they were alerted to the camouflaged bag at about 6.43pm.
The police requested that the public keep a distance from the bag while they investigated, Lianhe Wanbao reported. Some clothes and home appliances were found in the bag, Mr Xu told the Chinese daily.
"Checks were conducted on the bag and nothing incriminating was found," a police spokesperson told AsiaOne. A man clad in a black shirt was later seen being questioned by the police.
The man, Mr Wong, later confirmed with Lianhe Wanbao that he was the owner of the bag, and explained why it was left unattended.
The 50-year-old electrician said that he had just knocked off from work and was in a hurry to find a place to park his power-assisted bicycle.
As he was worried that the bus queue would get too long by time he parked his e-bicycle, Mr Wong decided to leave his bag in the bus queue to reserve a spot.
Mr Wong, who declined to reveal his full name to the Chinese evening daily, said: "I saw the police car, but I did not realise that they were here because of my unattended bag.
"It was only when I approached the front of the queue that I learnt my bag was missing. "When I asked the ticket inspector about my bag, he shouted loudly that the bag was mine.
The police then rushed over, giving me a shock." After questioning Mr Wong, police returned the bag to him after establishing that there was nothing suspicious in it.
Mr Wong said that it has been his habit for over a year to reserve a spot in the queue with his bag while he parked his bicycle, and it was no different this time.
The permanent resident has been working in Singapore for the past 20 years.
Mr Wong, who hails from Kuala Lumpur, said that he has been taking the Friday bus back to Johor Bahru, and a connecting bus to Kuala Lumpur frequently to visit his 80-year-old mum.
"I like to collect old electrical items, and I have been packing them in my bag over the past year whenever I go back to Malaysia. I didn't expect it to cause any misunderstanding," said Mr Wong.
Another false alarm was raised yesterday at Woodlands Checkpoint after a luxury handbag was found unattended. Three online users alerted Lianhe Wanbao to the commotion.
Police officers were seen surrounding the bag, examining it. The owner of the bag later came forward, defusing the tense situation.


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