She was at her office when she got a call from her sales assistant saying that water was flowing into her store on the third level at Seletar Mall.
Worried, the store owner rushed down to her toy store at the mall in Sengkang and found, to her dismay, that parts of the carpet in her store was soaked with water.
“I was shocked. The water damaged the boxes in which the toys were stored,” said the owner of Lamkins toy store, who only wanted to be known as Ms Lam.
Store owners The New Paper spoke to said the incident was due to water coming from inside a tuition centre on the third level of the mall. The incident happened at about 6pm on Monday.
A staff member from Aspire Hub Education on the third level told TNP: “We are currently drying and cleaning up the centre.”
Store owners said the water also flowed from the third floor all the way to basement one.
Mr Raj, 45, a storekeeper, said: “It was just very sudden when the water flowed from the third level to the lower levels.”
The areas which were flooded were cordoned off to be cleaned.
Madam Lily Tan, 62, the branch manager of an optical store, Knick & Knack, noted that the Seletar Mall management was quick to respond to the leak.
“They did their job well – there were about 10 cleaners who were clearing up the water till about 10pm,” she said.
She was relieved that water did not go into her store, which has wooden flooring.
FIRST TIME
Store owners said this is the first time the mall has experienced such an incident. Seletar Mall opened in November last year.
Said Ms Lam: “Hopefully this won’t happen again.”
When The New Paper went to the mall yesterday at lunchtime, business was going on as usual.
Responding to queries, a spokesman for Seletar Mall said yesterday: “The incident was due to a dislodgement of a water pipe. Our contractor worked through the night and everything is back to normal today.”
Source: www.tnp.sg
