SINGAPORE - Helping a person with a gunshot wound, attending to another with a heart attack, and responding to an act of terrorism at a coffeeshop: These were scenarios played out on Sunday morning (May 28) at Yishun for an emergency preparedness exercise.

About 600 residents attended the event, witnessing the "terror attack" at a busy coffeeshop and how the police and civil defence reacted to it.

Ms Lee Bee Wah (Nee Soon GRC) said: "Maybe you're thinking it won't really happen here. But last year, there was a plot to bomb Singapore from Batam."

Singapore's security so far was the exception and not the rule, she said.

Alongside the exercise, residents were also treated to a skit reinforcing messages behind SGSecure, such as run, hide and tell.

Last September, the SGSecure national movement was launched to sensitise, train and mobilise Singaporeans in preventing terrorism and dealing with its aftermath.

Booths were also set up for Sunday's event, in which residents could learn from the Singapore Civil Defence Force (SCDF) how to help someone having a heart attack, register for first aid training and learn more about SGSecure.

Ms Lee noted that Yishun MRT station had been a terrorist target in the past. In 2002, the Government released video footage showing that members of the Jemaah Islamiah network had planned to bomb targets near the station.