SINGAPORE - SMRT has defended its staff's actions during an overcrowding incident at Lakeside station on Tuesday, The Straits Times reported.
The paper quoted SMRT's vice president of corporate information and communications Patrick Nathan as saying that employees were deployed to stop commuters from using the escalator at the station which was packed due to train delays.
There were also staff helping to disperse and manage the crowd at the platform, Mr Nathan told The Straits Times.
A video of the incident, titled "Human Tetris on MRT Platform", was uploaded publicly onto Facebook by user Joel Rasis on Wednesday. The clip was also submitted to citizen journalism website Stomp by the commuter.
He had told Stomp that he had experienced a train delay of about 20 minutes on the day of the incident while on his way to work at about 7.40am.
He said: "What happened was commuters were instructed to get off the train and at the very same time, a new batch of commuters were heading to the platform on the escalator.
"At one point, commuters were all squashed up against each other while on the escalator up. There was basically no more space on the platform.
"I feel that the MRT staff below should have informed the commuters who were coming up."
In response to the video, Mr Nathan told The Strais Times that "it also shows station staff stopping more commuters from getting onto the escalator, and the escalator was stopped shortly after."
Four of the six fare gates were also closed to reduce the number of commuters entering the station, he said.
He added: "Our station staff are trained to manage crowding at platforms and have commuters' safety as their top priority."