Bomb hoax forces evacuation at Xinmin Secondary School

SINGAPORE: Students and staff members at Xinmin Secondary School in Hougang were briefly evacuated following a bomb hoax on Thursday (Aug 13).In a notification to parents seen by CNA, the school said it evacuated its students and staff at about 8.30am after being alerted to a "potential bomb threat".The Singapore Police Force (SPF) said they were alerted to the incident at around 8.20am."The police and the school personnel conducted a thorough check at the premises and no suspicious item was found," it added. All students and staff members were accounted for and safe, and regular lessons had resumed, the school said.When CNA arrived at about 11.45am, there were four police vehicles parked inside the school.Xinmin's vice-principal, Mr Tan Kok Kwang, told journalists waiting outside that the school had no further comments for now, as security officers closed the main gate.A Secondary 4 student told reporters that the incident started with the school’s principal making an announcement over the PA system at about 8.30am.She added that all the students were evacuated to the field, where the principal told them it was because of a bomb threat.“It was a bit sudden ... It caught us really off guard. Some of them were still having exams,” the student said.Mr Cheng, whose child studies at Xinmin Secondary School, said he was “shocked” to receive the notification about the bomb threat.“I never imagined such an incident happening in Singapore schools,” he said.He added that he was “deeply concerned” about his child’s safety and worried that a similar incident could happen again.Another parent, Mr Cho, said he was “a bit shocked” and surprised to hear about the bomb threat.Mr Cho, whose son is in Secondary 2, said he found out about the incident after 10am through Parents Gateway, an app used by schools to communicate with parents.He also received an update in the school's WhatsApp group for parents in the early afternoon.“I think the school did a good job to calm us down and all that, because they messaged us and told us everything’s ok,” he added.The police said it is investigating this incident as a case of communicating false information of a harmful thing, which carries an imprisonment term of up to seven years, a fine of up to S$50,000 (US$39,000) or both."The police take all security threats seriously and will not hesitate to take action against those who intentionally communicate false information on bomb threats," it said.CNA has contacted the Ministry of Education and the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) for more information.The latest bomb hoax comes four years after a similar incident at Evergreen Secondary School in Woodlands. Even though the threat was determined to be false, such security threats should still be taken seriously, MHA said then.Additional reporting by Ang Hwee Min.