Hundreds stuck in 'stampede waiting to happen' after New Year's fireworks at MBS
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.
Stomper PC, 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.
"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."
According to PC, the bottleneck caused anxiety to spread through the crowd, which he estimated to be more than 400 people.
"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."
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.
However, he did not observe any injuries or fainting cases.
"Some people tried to climb over the barricade as shown in the photo I shared," the Stomper said.
"The police shouted at them to get down."
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.
"Otherwise it would have taken much longer," he said. "It felt like a stampede or disaster was just waiting to happen."
Another Stomper alerted Stomp to a video posted on Instagram showing the crowd outside MBS at about 1am.
On New Year's Eve (Dec 31, 2025), the police said on their Facebook page 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.
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.
All affected areas around Marina Bay were reopened at about 1am on Jan 1.
