With their bare hands, they scooped rice off the ground into plastic bags.
The residents living in and around Block 156, Ang Mo Kio Avenue 4, didn't care that the rice was mixed with bits of dirt.
It was free.
The rush for the free rice happened on Thursday afternoon after a lorry carrying the grain was involved in an accident near the block around 12.30pm.
It rolled backwards down a slope and onto the pavement, spilling more than 300kg of rice on the ground.
Onlookers later gathered the spilled rice in sacks and plastic bags and took them home.
The driver was delivering the bags of rice to Long Cheng Grocery Fruits & Florist Trading in Block 157.
The boss of the store, who wanted to be known only as Madam Lee, said: "I was just about to write a receipt out for him when the lorry started rolling down the slope."
Madam Lee, who is in her 30s, said she also saw a pedestrian getting hit by the lorry. Fortunately, she wasn't badly hurt.
"I saw her again when she came to my shop this morning and she looks fine," Madam Lee said yesterday.
The police said a 35-year-old woman was taken to Tan Tock Seng Hospital for treatment. The Singapore Civil Defence Force said she had some minor swelling on her left arm.
Some residents went to the scene to see what the commotion was about. But no one immediately tried to help themselves to the spilled rice.
A 44-year-old resident of Block 155, who gave his name only as Mr Toh, said: "It isn't a nice thing to do, picking up rice when there has just been an accident."
They started gathering the rice only after the operations manager of rice distributor See Hoy Chan, which owns the lorry, gave them the green light.
The manager, who declined to be named, said there were about 10 onlookers when he arrived just before 2pm.
He said: "I just let them take the rice. It is better than leaving it on the pavement. Leaving it there would have made it messy and slippery."
So much rice
Mrs Chia, a 42-year-old housewife who was among those who picked up the rice, said: "There was so much rice there and it was so slippery. People might have fallen down if we left it there.
"I took about 10kg of rice and carried it up to my home by myself."
Mrs Chia said she gave half the rice to other people who asked her for it.
She said she wasn't worried the rice would be dirty or contaminated. She just removed the grass and leaves in the rice and washed it before cooking it.
"The rice was really fragrant and nice," she said.
The operations manager said: "The rice was good quality. We lost about seven to eight 50kg bags of rice."
Each 50kg bag costs about $100, he said.
Another lorry from See Hoy Chan collected the bags of rice that were still in the lorry and delivered them later in the afternoon to customers.
Replacement bags were also delivered yesterday to customers who did not receive their orders on Thursday.
It is unclear what caused the accident. Police are investigating.
