'It just got darker and darker'

TNP PHOTO: Benjamin Seetor

For a moment, he thought he was in a movie.

After driving barely 30m into the Kampong Java tunnel on the Central Expressway (CTE), heading towards the Ayer Rajah Expressway, Mr V.R. Chandran, 41, was confronted with a “tall flame”.

It turned out that a taxi had caught fire in the tunnel at about 10am yesterday. This led to the tunnel being closed for about three hours, which caused a massive traffic jam on the CTE.

A ComfortDelGro spokesman said the driver of the taxi had seen “white smoke coming out from the back of his taxi” before it caught fire.