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HE CLIMBED down to the train tracks and sat there.
Fearful that he would get electrocuted or that he might jump off the tracks, the station staff at Boon Lay MRT station shouted at him, asking him to return to safety.
But the man ignored their warnings.
Instead, he got up and walked towards the Lakeside MRT station, causing the station staff members to chase after him.
When he saw them coming after him, he began running too.
The incident happened at about 12.30pm on Wednesday.
A netizen who was there took pictures and posted them on the Hardware Zone forum.
The post drew 104 comments from netizens.
These ranged from speculation that the man had been possessed to jokes that he had grown impatient waiting for the train and had decided to walk to the next station instead.
When contacted, Mr Jason Teh, 28, the person who took the pictures and posted them on the forum, told The New Paper that he had been waiting for the train to go to town when he heard a commotion.
He walked towards the crowd and saw a man sitting on the tracks.
By then, about 50 curious onlookers had gathered.
Mr Teh, who is unemployed, said: "Everyone was very frantic. It was so scary seeing the man sitting on the tracks."
He said that when SMRT staff members walked towards the man, he got up and began walking away. However, when they were about to reach him, he started running.
But he did not resist when SMRT staff caught up with him after about 200m and led him back to the platform, said Mr Teh.
Mr Teh added: "He looked as though he just woke up, his eyes were not focused. He didn't say anything, but he looked quite sad."
A police spokesman said that they received a call about the incident at about 12.35pm. But when they arrived, they found that a 20-year-old man had been brought to safety.
The man, believed to be autistic, had been reported missing earlier that day. He has been reunited with his family, police said.
There have been five cases of track intrusions so far this year. Of these three were fatal. Last year, there were 14 track intrusions. Two were fatal.
An SMRT spokesman said that staff at the Boon Lay MRT station were alerted when a commuter who witnessed the incident activated the emergency stop plunger.
Emergency stop plunger The plunger, located at train platforms, allows trains to be stopped when there is clear danger to the safety of passengers.
When activated, it stops an approaching train from entering the station, and prevents the train that is at the platform from moving off.
After they were alerted, station staff immediately went onto the track to escort the man to safety. The man was taken to the staff room to wait for the ambulance and the police.
The incident caused a 10-minute delay to westbound train services.
The SMRT spokesman said: "We would like to reiterate that going down to the MRT or LRT tracks... is prohibited and extremely dangerous."
Under the Rapid Transit System Regulations, passengers caught trespassing the tracks can be fined up to $5,000, she said.
Half-height platform screen doors are progressively being installed at all elevated MRT stations and are expected to be completed by 2012, she added.
Such doors have not been built at Boon Lay station yet.
