The 20-year-old NSF, Corporal Dave Teo Ming, had the weapon - believed to be an SAR-21 assault rifle - and the bullets on him when he was nabbed on the third floor of Orchard Cineleisure mall.

He was discovered missing from the Mandai Hill Camp at 11.59pm on Sunday night, sparking off an islandwide manhunt that involved more than 200 police officers.

Last night, witnesses to Cpl Teo's arrest at the mall, which is popular among the young for its mix of fast food, fashion, music and sports shops, said everything happened quickly and without fuss - so much so that even the security guards there were unaware of the drama that unfolded.

Ms Aisah Abdullah, a 46-year-old cashier at World of Sports on the mall's second floor said: 'At about 8pm, I saw men running up the escalator to the third floor. Soon, more police arrived and they cordoned off the whole floor for about an hour.'

Other witnesses said they saw a brief stir.

Police did not say how Cpl Teo managed to conceal the weapon, which is about 80 cm long, slightly shorter than an umbrella.

The Ministry of Defence and police said Cpl Teo was trained as an infantryman wth the 1st Battalion, Singapore Infantry Regiment.

His full-time NS stint was to have ended next month.

Cpl Teo had been assigned the rifle and ammunition for guard duty at the camp.

The Singapore Armed Forces, strict about accounting for all firearms and ammunition, requires soldiers to sign for weapons and to count every bullet that is issued.

Even empty bullet casings are recovered from the rifle range after practice firings.

In a similar case in 1986, a soldier who stole an American-made AR-15 rifle and 30 bullets two years earlier was charged in the High Court and given five years in jail and 12 strokes of the cane.

Cpl Teo will be investigated under the Arms Offences Act, which carries a jail penalty of between five and 10 years, and caning for unlawful possession of arms or ammunition.

dboey@sph.com.sg

jermync@sph.com.sg

ADDITIONAL REPORTING BY KHUSHWANT SINGH AND LEUNG WAI-LENG