RESIDENTS in a private housing estate off Jalan Kayu scrambled for help after a mudslide brought the walls and fences at the back of their homes down late on Wednesday night.

The mudslide following a heavy downpour that night left one occupant of a terrace house in Jalan Tari Serempi without the 2m-high wall and fence at the back and badly damaged the perimeter wall of another.

While the residents believe that the construction of a block of houses behind their homes could have something to do with the incident, the engineer and developer for the project pointed their fingers at the weak structure of the walls.

The Building and Construction Authority (BCA) has ordered construction works on the site to stop until further notice. An investigation is under way. A spokesman added that the structural Qualified Person, or the project's engineer, has inspected the site and 'confirmed that the structural integrity of the houses had not been affected by the collapse'.

Property agent Madam Habsah Sultan, 50, who lives at No. 2, Jalan Tari Serempi, said there had been a lot of construction work going on since a month ago. 'With the digging and the rain, the soil might have just given way,' she said.

Her neighbour, Madam Toh Wong See, agreed, adding that in her 12 years in the neighbourhood, mudslides have never happened, not even during heavy rains.

Madam Habsah was still awake when the walls collapsed around midnight.

She told The Straits Times: 'I was still up when I heard a loud sound like a thunderclap at about 11.50pm. I just thought it was the storm again but when I went to the back of the house, I saw part of the backyard area had given way and the wall and perimeter fencing had buckled.'

Read the full story in Friday's edition of The Straits Times.