What's believed to be an unexploded bomb was discovered at a construction site in Commonwealth Avenue West yesterday afternoon.
Construction next to Nan Hua High School came to a halt at around 5 PM, and the police and army were called in soon after.
Eyewitness Kevin Magnus, who stays on the 18th floor of an HDB block facing the construction site, has been monitoring the situation using binoculars since last night.
Speaking to 938LIVE, Mr Magnus, who handled ordinances during his national service stint, believes he saw a bomb uncovered by the excavators.
"I peered down, and there seems to be a bit of, some commotion with the site supervisors. Thereafter the excavators stopped with their digging. And I was at the balcony peering down and I had a clear look. After they had cleared the earth, and they found a piece of cylindrical material. It looks cylindrical with fins. It looks like a bomb, 60 to 80 pounder."
Mr Magnus said that four men from the Bomb Disposal Unit were brought in, and the whole area was cordoned off by the police.
As of 12.30pm today, officers from the Singapore Armed Forces were seen digging a trench about a kilometre away from the bomb location.
Mr Magnus believes the trench will be used to detonate the bomb.
"There is a trench, which looks like what we used in the Armed Forces, a "shell scrap". I'm not too sure how deep it is. Surrounding it, there are concrete blocks, where you use concrete blocks to do weight piling. To do soil testing, there are 8 of them. And to the right of the concrete blocks, there are national service men filling up the sand bags with the earth from the construction site."
Police have confirmed that a "war relic" has been found, but were unable to provide further details.
Operations are currently ongoing to secure the site.
Police add that members of the public are advised not to be alarmed.