SINGAPORE: Since the start of the year, some residents at Compassvale Drive have been plagued by chanting and knocking noises that can be heard at all hours of the day and night.
The sounds, described by residents as an audio recording of sutra chanting and knocking on a “wooden fish” – a ceremonial instrument used by Buddhists – could not be heard when CNA visited the flats on Monday morning (Jan 30).
But several residents said they had been hearing the noises for weeks, most recently on Sunday. Most of those affected live in a corner of Block 201C, Compassvale Drive.
A resident on the 11th floor who only wanted to be known as Mr Choo, 67, said the noises could be heard in his home at all hours of the day and night and were “very loud”.
When it first started, Mr Choo thought the noises came from a wake and would only last a few days. He estimated it has now been two weeks.
The noises have woken him up in the middle of the night, so he has taken to closing the windows of his master bedroom before going to sleep.
Mr Choo believed the sounds were from a recording because “they cannot be so amazing (as to chant and knock) from morning for several hours, it’s impossible”.
“When I go to sleep and wake up in the middle of the night, it’s still that sound. When I wake up in the morning, it’s that sound again,” he said in Mandarin.
Another resident on the fifth floor who only wanted to be known as Ms Grace, 50, has also had difficulty falling asleep because of the noise.
It can be heard the “whole day” from her bedrooms and kitchen, and has been affecting her since the start of January, she said.
An unsigned handwritten notice calling for an end to the noise was affixed to the wall near the ground floor lift lobby when CNA visited.
“Be considerate to your neighbours and lower down your volume or close off your windows,” it read.