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Puzzled students look at each other, shrug their shoulders and wonder what it was all about. Some roll their eyes.
What they had witnessed that April 18 was a 'flash mob' event. This is when people are contacted either through e-mail messages or online forums, and gather at an agreed place to do something wacky for a short time before dispersing.
It's a craze that last took global pop culture by storm in 2003 and which is popping up again in Singapore.
While some overseas events are staged in the name of socio-political activism, Singapore's mob squads stress that they do it purely for fun - though they admit that not all members of the public share their sense of humour.
Still, computing student Phun Yan Yan, 23, who took part in last month's NUS 'Freeze', says: 'It was nearing the exams and we all wanted to de-stress. You let your hair down and it felt as if time stopped.'
LifeStyle tracked down two groups which organise events here: Ms Phun's informal lot and another one called Mission: Singapore, a four-month-old group that has organised six differently themed flash mobs.
Participants range from 12- to 40-year-olds, but most are young adults and teens.
Mission: Singapore organised another flash mob event yesterday, in which participants were to 'freeze' for five minutes on the footpath outside Takashimya shopping centre. About 1,500 had signed up to take part, though organisers expected 400 to actually turn up.
There have been several flash mob events over the past few months, including one on April 26 organised by Mission: Singapore in which 20 participants swarmed into an SMRT train carriage travelling north from Marina Bay station.
Some decorated their faces with face paint. Others handed out balloons and stick-on hearts. Another attached his laptop to speakers and played retro hits and dance music. The group yelled to boarding commuters: 'Welcome to the Party Train!'
However, a disgruntled commuter informed SMRT employees who stopped the group's activities at Admiralty station, where they voluntarily got off.
A spokesman says causing nuisance to other passengers is an offence that can incur a maximum penalty of a $500 fine, but 'the group was cooperative, and the matter was settled amicably'.
On why they hold such events, two organisers from Mission: Singapore, National Junior College student Syamil Dasuki and Nanyang Polytechnic student Foo Maojie, both 18, say they wanted 'to bring strangers together by doing something fun in the name of fun, and nothing more'.
However, lawyers whom LifeStyle spoke to say that a flash mob without a public entertainment licence could be deemed as unlawful assembly, which is a gathering of five or more people with a view of committing an offence, and which is punishable with up to two years' jail.
The legal scope could also include the Sedition Act, and private laws on trespassing and defamation, they say.
But the groups maintain they don't want to step on anyone's toes, and that they are non-political.
Still, Ms Phun says she would get clearance from school authorities for future larger-scale events.
And Mission: Singapore says it had sought permission from VivoCity mall for its next event. It is planned for the end of the month and involves a five-minute mock shoot-out with fingers, not guns, 'inspired by but not in protest of' a banned Xbox 360 advert.
A total of 206 people had signed up for the 'finger gunfight' event on Facebook as of Friday. However, the mall has turned down their request.
But Mission: Singapore's Foo says: 'It must happen, but it will take place somewhere else where we haven't been rejected.
