SINGAPORE - The Immigration & Checkpoints Authority's (ICA) passport system experienced intermittent slowdown for about 90 minutes on Monday (May 9), leading to long queues at its office in Lavender.

The system has since resumed operations and no data has been compromised, an ICA spokesman told The Straits Times.

"We are currently investigating into the cause of the incident. We thank members of the public for their patience and understanding that they had taken a longer than usual time to collect their passports," said the spokesman.

A Straits Times reader who did not want to be named said a queue of at least 50 people had formed at ICA's passport collection booths when he arrived in the early afternoon.

The reader, who was there with his daughter to collect her new passport, said: "After standing there for 45 minutes without the queue moving, I checked with a staff who told me that the entire system was down, from booking appointments to passport collection."

He added that as the atmosphere was "getting quite chaotic", he decided to leave without collecting his daughter's passport.