March 12, 2017, 10:50 AM 
A tomb in Bukit Brown Cemetery has collapsed, due to the nearby construction work for the Mount Pleasant station along the Thomson-East Coast line.
According to Chinese paper Shin Min Daily News, this happened over the weekend on March 4.
A worker told one of the reporters he believes the cause of the incident was the soil, as it was soft and had been saturated due to heavy rain that occurred over the past few days.
This caused the grave to collapse while they were carrying out construction work nearby.
Construction works involved digging to about 30 metres underground, equivalent to the height of a 10-storey building.
No one was hurt due to the accident.
The collapse, according to Lianhe Zaobao, is described to be localised depression, which means that it happened within a specific area.
From the embedded post, it can be seen that more than half of the grave had sunk into the ground.
According to a spokesperson for the LTA, all works along this part of the Thomson-East Coast MRT line have been temporarily stopped until pockets of space in the soil have been filled, and reinforced mitigation measures are in place.
LTA has also identified the affected tomb to be that of a man called Chen Yi Kuan. His tombstone reveals that his birthplace was in Kinmen county in Fujian, China.
Efforts are being made to contact his next-of-kin, and the grave will not be restored or moved until expressed permission is gained from the family members.
Bukit Brown cemetery, opened in 1922 is one of the remaining historical cemeteries in Singapore. It is home to the tombs of many notable pioneers, including businessmen Ong Sam Leong and Chew Boon Lay.
More than 3,000 of the 100,000 graves at the cemetery have already been exhumed for a new road to be constructed, which generated much debate among Singaporeans
With the construction of the Mount Pleasant station, however, the preservation of the graves remains to be seen.
Top image via Jacklee on Wikimedia Commons
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