The couple, who happened to be sitting under the pipe, were drenched by the downpour, according to an eyewitness.
“The pregnant lady let out a horrified scream, and they were both stunned for a few minutes,” said a 28-year-old business owner who wanted to be identified only as Sandra.
“Her husband then pulled her away from the table,” she wrote in a report to citizen journalism website Stomp.
A spokesman for Jem confirmed that the incident happened at 8.45pm, and the leak was from a kitchen waste pipe.
“Technical and cleaning crews were immediately deployed to assist (people) at the store. Investigation is still in progress,” the spokesman added.
Din Tai Fung, which is on the second floor of the mall, was open for business yesterday.
The eyewitness told The Straits Times that black water gushed out for about three minutes, before slowing to a drip.
“It stunk like faeces,” she noted.
While the couple bore the brunt of the burst pipe as they were right under it and away from other diners, some of the water had also splashed on other diners.
The restaurant chain is operated by the BreadTalk group, which would not comment further, other than to say the company would work with the landlord and leave it to investigate the matter.
Such incidents are not new to Jem.
In April, a salad shop, Saladworks, also on the second floor, was flooded when a blocked waste pipe caused a backflow of water into the store.
In June last year, sprinklers on the third floor of the mall were triggered unexpectedly, damaging shop goods and forcing some tenants to close for the day.
Source: www.straitstimes.com
