11 people assisting in police investigations after white substances found at Catholic Centre, Bible House
The Catholic Centre and Bible House. (Photos: TODAY/Ili Nadhirah Mansor)
SINGAPORE: Eleven people aged between 49 and 67 are assisting in police investigations after white substances were found at the Catholic Centre on Wednesday (Jan 18) and the Bible House on Tuesday.
Preliminary investigations suggest the incidents are linked, said the police.
The Catholic Centre is run by the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Singapore and the Bible House is run by the Bible Society of Singapore. The buildings are about 700m apart.
The Singapore Civil Defence Force said it was alerted to an incident at the Catholic Centre venue at 55 Waterloo Street at about 9.55am on Jan 18.
"Some white substances were found at the premises," said a spokesperson.
SCDF hazardous materials (HazMat) specialists, wearing personal protective equipment, retrieved some of the substances and conducted several tests.
No harmful substances were detected.
Two staff members at the Catholic Centre told TODAY that closed-circuit television cameras caught two cars approaching the centre at about 2am on Tuesday. A group of about eight people alighted and started spraying an unidentified liquid and scattering a white substance around the building, they said.
The staff members, who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorised to speak to the media, also told TODAY that the recording clearly showed the faces of the people as well as the licence plate numbers of the vehicles that pulled up at the building.
“One person was preparing the powder and another person was taking a picture of the person,” one of the staff members who had seen the CCTV footage said.
In response to CNA's queries, a spokesperson for the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Singapore said: "We understand that the police and SCDF are investigating the report made at the Catholic Centre in Waterloo Street this morning.
"We are unable to make a statement at this time," he added.
In a similar incident on Tuesday, SCDF said it was alerted at about 12.40pm to the Bible House premises at 7 Armenian Street, where white substances were found.
Some of the substances were retrieved by SCDF officers as a sample, and several tests were conducted by HazMat specialists.
As with the Catholic Centre incident, no harmful substances were detected.
CNA has contacted the Bible Society of Singapore for more information.
