East Coast Park patrons get hands, feet stained by 'black sticky substance' on the beach
A day at the beach turned into a bit of a messy affair when a group of kids found their hands, feet, and clothes stained with a black, sticky substance.
According to AsiaOne, the group along with their parents were camping at East Coast Park near the National Sailing Centre on June 21. After playing in the water, one of the kids returned covered in the mysterious substance.
The boy’s mother tried removing the stains with soap and sand, but to no avail.
It was removed only hours later, with paint remover.
The mother, surnamed Chen, told 8world that while trying to clean off the substance in the toilet, she noticed others in the same predicament.
"I don't know if the waste oil from the sea was brought in because the tide turned in the evening," she said, adding that when they arrived at the beach around 3pm, the water "was clean".
The next morning, when Chen returned to the beach, she noticed that the mystery substance had solidified into lumps.
In 2016, almost 300 tonnes of oil spilled into Singaporean and Malaysian waters after a collision between two container vessels early that year. Workers had to pack oil-stained sand into trash bags.
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