A man scaled a platform screen door at Tanah Merah MRT Station and went onto the tracks on Thursday (8 November).

His actions reportedly delayed eastbound journeys on the East-West Line for up to 10 minutes, before he was found on the eastbound tracks and brought back onto the platform by duty staff.

Margaret Teo, SMRT’s vice-president for corporate communications, said in a statement, “At about 11.40am today, our station staff spotted a man jumping over the platform screen doors at Tanah Merah MRT Station. The Emergency Stop Plunger (ESP) was immediately activated to stop train movement and traction power was turned off.”

After the man was led back to the station, the station manager followed up with a visual check to ensure nothing else was left on the tracks, before allowing the next train to pull up.

Teo said, “Our staff managed to persuade the man to return back to the platform safely, where he was subsequently handed over to the police for further investigations. Train services progressively resumed just before 12pm.”

Police are investigating the case.

Track intrusions have been rare since the screen doors were installed in 2012. Before that, it was reported that a total of 177 track intrusions were recorded on the MRT network since 2003.

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