Floor Tiles Burst Apart At Bugis Kopitiam, Diners Reportedly Scrambled To Get Away Mid-Meal

Floor Tiles Burst Apart At Bugis Kopitiam Along Queen Street On 8 Dec

When sitting down for a long-awaited meal, the last thing you’d expect to happen is the ground opening up beneath your feet.

Unfortunately, 10 diners reportedly had that experience at a kopitiam in Bugis when the floor tiles under them started bursting apart.

Despite being in the middle of their meals, the diners reportedly scrambled to get away.

Incident happened in kopitiam on Queen Street

The bizarre incident happened on Thursday (8 Dec) at about 3pm, reported Shin Min Daily News.

The kopitiam in question is located on the ground floor of Block 269B, Queen Street.

Those who frequent Bugis+ will know it as the kopitiam just opposite the mall.

Bugis kopitiam floor tiles burst with crackling sounds

A mee hoon kway stallholder named only as Ms Huang, 53, told Shin Min that she’d heard a series of crackling explosive sounds.

She described them as being similar to firecrackers.

When she looked in the direction of the noises, she saw the floor tiles cracking and bulging upwards one by one.

Afraid that the floor would cave in, Ms Huang and a colleague stopped their work and went outside the kopitiam.

10 diners flee mid-meal

Ms Huang also observed that there were about 10 diners sitting in the affected area at the time.

Some of them felt something strange under their feet after barely taking two bites of their food.

They quickly abandoned their food to get away from the area.

A photo provided by a reader showed cracked and bulging tiles under the tables of a large swathe of the kopitiam, with some debris next to the tiles. The affected area was cordoned off.

Stallholder thought it was an earthquake

A yong tau foo stallholder named Lin Yan Yan (transliterated from Chinese) said she thought there was an earthquake when she heard the “explosions”.

However, she continued operating her stall till 10pm as customers could still walk around the cordoned area to her stall.

The mee hoon kway stall also resumed operations after an hour, till 7.30pm that night.

A male staff member of a pao fan stall said his business wasn’t affected, and understood that the condoning off of the area was for public safety.

Workers repair floor two hours later

At 5pm, some two hours after the incident, Shin Min observed that workers had already been called in to repair the floor.

The broken tiles were removed, and workers temporarily covered the bare floor with cardboard.

The affected area spanned about eight tables entirely in the indoor section of the premises, with chairs moved away to allow the repair work to be done.

However, the incident didn’t seem to affect business much, as customers still thronged the outdoors section, eating and drinking as normal.

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Featured image adapted from Shin Min Daily News on Facebook.