Xinmin bomb scare.
Xinmin Secondary School evacuates students over bomb threat; police find no suspicious items.
Key Points
Xinmin Secondary School activated its evacuation procedures at 8:28am and evacuated students and staff promptly after the alert.
Students and staff were evacuated to the school field during the response, with the move described by witnesses as a swift evacuation.
Parents received updates via the Parents Gateway app, with at least one parent noting the notification around 10am.
A bomb threat forced the evacuation of Xinmin Secondary School in Hougang on the morning of August 13, sending students and staff out to the school field shortly after lessons began. Tabla reported that the school was alerted to the threat at 8:28am and immediately activated its evacuation procedures.
Police conducted a thorough search of the premises and found no suspicious items. All students and staff were accounted for, and classes resumed normally afterward, according to Yahoo News.
Students Moved to Field as Police Swept the School
When the alert came in at 8:28am, Xinmin Secondary wasted no time. Staff moved students out of classrooms and onto the school field in what witnesses described as a swift evacuation, according to Headtopics. The school is located in Hougang, in northeastern Singapore.
Police arrived and searched the entire building. They found no suspicious items. Once the all-clear was given, students and staff returned to their classrooms and regular lessons continued for the rest of the day, Headtopics reported.
Parents Notified Through App Around 10am
The school kept parents in the loop using the Parents Gateway app, a platform commonly used by Singapore schools to send official updates. At least one parent noted receiving a notification around 10am, well after the evacuation had already begun, according to Yahoo News.
The Ministry of Education and the Ministry of Home Affairs were both involved in coordinating updates on the incident. Authorities have not disclosed how the threat was delivered or exactly how long the disruption lasted.
Police Treating It as a False Information Case
Headtopics reported that police are investigating the incident as a case of communicating false information. In Singapore, making a hoax bomb threat is a criminal offence and can carry serious penalties.
No arrests have been publicly announced. Authorities have not said whether the threat was made by phone, email, or another method. The investigation is ongoing.
Singapore Schools Have Faced Similar Threats Before
This is not the first time a Singapore school has dealt with a bomb hoax. A similar incident hit Evergreen Secondary School in 2022, raising questions at the time about how schools handle security threats. The Xinmin case echoes those concerns.
The quick response at Xinmin — from evacuation to all-clear — suggests schools have refined their emergency procedures since then. Still, the disruption to hundreds of students on a regular school morning highlights how seriously authorities take even unverified threats, according to Tabla.
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