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The time clocked: 4.05pm. When the alarm was raised that he had escaped, the centre underwent an immediate lockdown. Officers, mainly the tough Nepalese Gurkhas, scoured the centre's compound, which comprises at least two buildings ringed by a fence. As the sun set, the hunt was extended to Goldhill Estate, a quiet enclave of semi-detached houses near Barker Road. Goldhill residents said plainclothes detectives and Gurkhas went door to door and also asked those returning from work whether they had seen a Malay man. A 65-year-old retiree, who wanted to be known only as Robert, said detectives approached him at about 5pm, while he was taking a walk in the estate. He said he was shown a picture of the man and told that he was an escaped detainee. Another resident, Mr Terry Chia, 44, said he was shown the picture but not told the man was a detainee. He learnt about it only a few hours later, as did other residents, as the news emerged from radio and television, the Internet or from reporters in the area. Two kilometres away, in tree-lined Malcolm Park, a housing estate near St Joseph's Institution, it would have been difficult not to know something was up: Police patrol cars and red trucks, their sides emblazoned with 'Special Operations Command' (SOC), were lined up by the road. SOC officers and Gurkhas threw a ring around Malcolm Park and Goldhill Avenue. Plainclothes officers entered the 24-hour convenience stores in the Caltex and Esso petrol stations, flashed Mas Selamat's picture and quizzed station employees. If CCTVs were on the premises, they were stripped of their recordings on the chance that they contained footage of the fugitive. At this time, the messaging system in all Comfort taxis was beeping, flashing a request for cabbies to look out for a Malay man clad in beige attire. Or he could be shirtless, the message added. By 7pm, the police presence was markedly heightened. Stony-faced Gurkhas in army fatigues combed Malcolm Park for unusual activity and found none. Malcolm Park and Goldhill Estate are, after all, not usually given to high drama. Retiree Joseph Tay, 72, who wanted to take a stroll in the forested area behind his Goldhill Avenue home, was stopped by the police. He said: 'This is usually a very quiet place. Several years ago, I heard that illegal immigrants used to hide in the forest here, but this place has been very safe. But I'll listen to the police, go home, lock up and turn on the lights.' By 8pm, the security perimeter which started at Malcolm Road had been extended to Upper Bukit Timah Road, near Beauty World Plaza. The Whitley Road Detention Centre has been so low-key that residents like Mrs Jasmine Lim, 42, were surprised that such a facility was so near their homes. Meanwhile, patrol cars purred through the Goldhill neighbourhood. Roadblocks went up at the junction of Goldhill Avenue and Dunearn Road. Cars going into and leaving the estate were stopped and their drivers questioned. If some people thought this was a dragnet for drink drivers, the notion was dispelled fast - the officers were asking for boots to be opened, flashing torchlights and peering into the vehicles. Puzzled drivers who had not by now heard the news were told, baldly, that it was a 'routine check'. Thursday, Feb 28 THE Gurkhas began their sweeps from house to house, and also combed the wooded area in Malcolm Road. Some residents, looking bleary-eyed at their gates, did not appear surprised when asked by a plainclothes officer politely to be let in to check their homes, not even when the officer had several Gurkhas with him. Nobody refused them entry. The men did their job in five to 10 minutes at each house and got out. One resident said about 20 Gurkhas searched his garden but not the inside of his home. Even the drains running along the street were checked. All this while, the neighbourhood dogs barked and growled their disapproval. Over at Goldhill Place, another street in the estate, about 100 Gurkhas systematically combed the vegetation, training the beams of their torches on the ground and to the tops of trees. Quite often, Gurkha commanders barked out 'Halt!' whenever someone on the team saw something suspect. As dawn broke, some of the police special operations personnel stood down - only to be replaced by fresh muscle from a Singapore Armed Forces' Guards unit and the military police. About 100 soldiers showed up for duty in four Land Rovers and four five-tonner trucks, just as residents of the estates were starting to leave for work or school. Traffic on Dunearn Road built up as SOC trucks and the five-tonners squatted in one lane of the thoroughfare. Cars were stopped and checked. Some parents whose children were in the area's schools told The Straits Times they were worried about sending their children to school, though St Joseph's Institution and Singapore Chinese Girls' School (SCGS) both reassured parents at the morning assembly about their respective security measures. Mrs Ong Poon Lee, whose eight-year-old is in SCGS, said: 'I have told my daughter not to play in isolated spots of the school... You never know what might happen.' At about 10am, Gurkhas began checking the abandoned bungalows in the Goldhill area, led by grassroots leader and long-time Goldhill resident Fred Chong. About half a dozen houses in the area with unlocked gates are either vacant or undergoing renovation. But these possible hiding places yielded nothing. By 9.30pm, the Goldhill and Malcolm Park neighbourhoods were cleared of police and troops. ADDITIONAL REPORTING BY TEH JOO LIN, DAVID BOEY, CHONG CHEE KIN, TANIA TAN AND JERMYN CHOW For a peek on the manhunt and security measures in the Dunearn Road area, click for our free video news.
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