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A man described a tense and frightening situation at Marina Bay Sands (MBS) on New Year’s Day (Jan 1), saying hundreds of people were held in a narrow area with no clear way to move forward.<\/p>\n
Stomper PC<\/b><\/span>, who was at MBS to watch the fireworks, said the incident occurred just after midnight, at about 12.36am, as crowds were making their way home.<\/p>\n “After the fireworks, people were channelled into a very narrow area and then not allowed to move on,” the Stomper said. “They only let people trickle out slowly for whatever reason.”<\/p>\n According to PC, the bottleneck caused anxiety to spread through the crowd, which he estimated to be more than 400 people.<\/p>\n “People started to panic, hyperventilating and getting very anxious,” he said. “Kids were crying. The crowd was getting restless and there was a big crush.”<\/p>\n PC added that he saw at least one person experiencing what appeared to be a panic attack and struggling to breathe, while others shoved through the crowd in hopes of finding another exit.<\/p>\n However, he did not observe any injuries or fainting cases.<\/p>\n “Some people tried to climb over the barricade as shown in the photo I shared,” the Stomper said.<\/p>\n “The police shouted at them to get down.”<\/p>\n He told Stomp he entered the area at around 12.15am and was only able to leave at about 12.55am, after officers opened another exit following repeated demands from the crowd.<\/p>\n “Otherwise it would have taken much longer,” he said. “It felt like a stampede or disaster was just waiting to happen.”<\/p>\n Another Stomper alerted Stomp to a video posted on Instagram showing the crowd outside MBS at about 1am.<\/p>\n On New Year’s Eve (Dec 31, 2025), the police said on their Facebook page<\/a><\/span> that they had closed access to nine areas around Marina Bay due to large crowds that had gathered for the Marina Bay Singapore Countdown 2026 event.<\/p>\n At about 11.20pm, access was restricted to several locations, including the MBS waterfront areas near the ArtScience Museum, Louis Vuitton and the Rain Oculus.<\/p>\n All affected areas around Marina Bay were reopened<\/a><\/span> at about 1am on Jan 1.<\/p>\n
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