The sight of commuters being evacuated from Toa Payoh MRT Station piqued Benjamin’s curiosity, as he saw hordes of people leaving the station.

The STOMPer noticed this while he was on his way to the Toa Payoh bus interchange during the lunch time rush hour.

In an email which the 17-year-old student sent to STOMP today (Dec 18), the STOMPer wrote:

“At 1:30pm, I was walking past the station when I saw smoke coming out of the station and lots of people were rushing out of the station.

“I heard from one of the passers-by that one of the trains travelling towards Marina Bay from Jurong East had white smoke coming from it.

“Everyone was told to evacuate the station and even the officers looked shocked.

“Fortunately, after 15 minutes, everything returned to normal.”

STOMP contacted SMRT and a spokesman said that the smoke was due to a faulty air con.

"At 1.25pm, smoke was detected from one of the air-con units in a train carriage of a southbound train at Toa Payoh MRT Station.

"As a result, passengers were detrained and the train was removed from service. This resulted in a train service delay of around seven minutes.

"We are investigating the cause of the incident. We apologise for any inconvenience caused."