SINGAPORE - Two metal bars fell from a Housing & Development Board (HDB) block on Saturday (April 1), but no one was injured.

The incident happened at about 12.45pm on Saturday at Block 77, Indus Road, Lianhe Wanbao reported.

The bars were about 3m long, the Chinese evening daily said. One fell on the roof of a pavilion on the ground floor while the other fell on the pavement.

Miss Lim, 40, told Wanbao that she was visiting her father at the blocks near Delta Road when she heard a loud sound. It sounded like a heavy object falling.

The bars were decorative structures from the top of the blocks, according to Miss Lim.

Three blocks in the area - Block 77, 78 and 79 - were cordoned off. One of the bars on Block 79 was also missing, Wanbao said.

The Jalan Besar Town Council said that staff went to the site immediately to check.

"It was found that two decorative aluminum panels on the facade of the block had fallen off. We had cordoned off the other blocks with similar decorative panels as a precautionary safety measure," it said in a statement issued on Sunday (April 2).

"We were currently working with the authorities to conduct a thorough investigation into the matter."

The blocks were built more than four decades ago but have been upgraded.

MP for Jalan Besar GRC Lily Neo said on Monday that HDB sent engineers to investigate. They will also "remove all other metal bars if necessary" to prevent the same incident from happening again.

"Residents' safety is our priority and we shall do our utmost to protect their interests," Dr Neo said.

There were three reported incidents of structures falling from the facade of HDB blocks last year.

A sunshade in Tampines was partially dislodged in September, a piece of facade fell from a block in Circuit Road in October, and a slab of plaster fell from the top of an Hougang block in November.