Hotel New World collapse On 15 March 1986, at approximately 11.30 a.m., the six- storey Lian Yak Building at 305 Serangoon Road collapsed without warning. In less than a minute, the whole building was reduced to a pile of rubble, burying all those inside. While the building was generally referred to as the Hotel New World, the hotel in fact only occupied the third to sixth floors; on the ground floor was a branch office of the Industrial & Commercial Bank, and on the floor above was a nightclub.

Over the next few days, 17 survivors were dug out from the rubble. The Singapore Civil Defence Force, the Singapore Armed Forces, the Police Task Force and civil engineers involved in tunnelling works for the Mass Rapid Transit system were involved in the rescue work, which was done in several phases. First, beams and debris were removed from the top and the side to give access to the people trapped just below the top layer of rubble. In the second, harder phase, tunnels were made at the side to reach those buried deeper. Rescuers had to use life detection devices to find survivors. The tunnelling had to be done very carefully to avoid triggering a further collapse. By the fourth day, no more survivors were detected. The final death toll was 33.

Singaporeans from all walks of life contributed to the rescue effort. Companies offered food, drinks and life- saving equipment to the rescue team. People queued to donate blood. Doctors were on standby in all government hospitals to provide immediate medical assistance to survivors.

President Wee Kim Wee appointed Justice L.P. Thean to head a commission of inquiry to investigate the cause, and recommend measures to prevent a recurrence. The panel found that ‘there had not been any triggering act or incident that brought the entire building to the ground’. The panel was of the opinion that ‘the root and main cause of the collapse lies in the structural design of the building [which] was so grossly inadequate that it was a matter of time before the building would collapse unless a major and comprehensive effort was made to save it’.