SOME were reading the papers while others were standing idly by.

And when the music came on, 200 dancers took the onlookers at Raffles Place by surprise as they broke into a choreographed dance.

'The toughest part of the flash mob was to train 200 people for the dance. We don't have a space to accommodate everybody so we separate them in groups,' said Ms Carol Cheong, the dance choreographer for the flash mob.

The routine took them around two weeks to put together.

Increasingly, flash mobs are used as publicity stunts without the original spontaneity.

To find out what onlookers think about the organised flash mobs, go to RazorTV.