A Malaysian, who is a permanent resident in Singapore, never imagined that leaving his bag unattended would cause alarm.

The man identified only as Wong said he left his bag, containing clothes and electrical appliances, at a bus terminal in Queen Street, to hold a spot in the queue while he parked his bicycle nearby last Friday.

Wong said he has being doing this for a year now.

Every Friday, the 50-year-old electrician takes a bus to Johor Bahru, and then travels to Kuala Lumpur to visit his elderly mother.

"I saw the police car, but I did not realise that they were here because of my unattended bag.

"I didn't expect it to cause any misunderstanding," he was quoted as saying by news reports.

According to Xu Wei Lin, who was at the bus terminal at the time, the panic was a result of the terror attack in Jakarta the day before and people were concerned that the bag contained explosives.

A similar situation had unraveled at the Woodlands Checkpoint, where a luxury handbag was left unattended. It was later claimed by the owner.

Last Thursday, a bomb explosion in the Indonesian capital had killed eight people and injured more than 20.

Following the incident, neighbouring countries such as Singapore and Malaysia were placed on high alert.