The employees of the KFC outlet in Novena Square had not realised there were customers inside when they locked up and left for the day in the incident which occurred on May 29, TODAY Online reported.

KFC told the daily that they had followed up with the customers and apologised, and also reviewed their internal protocol to ensure such an incident does not occur again.

According to one of the five customers trapped, the lights in the dining area remained on and only the kitchen and counter lights seemed to have been switched off, when they discovered the awkward predicament they were in.

Jessica Chan, 57, told TODAY that she and two friends were deep in conversation after having visited a former schoolmate at the Tan Tock Seng Hospital nearby, and realised they were trapped about 30 minutes past the scheduled closing time of 10pm.

Two other people at a nearby table also remained in the restaurant, keeping watch on the three ladies, to make sure it was still good to stay in.

“I kept asking my friend to look out for the other group, and since they were (still) there, we didn’t think anything was amiss,” a 40-year old woman, who gave her name as Wong, was quoted as saying by TODAY.

Chan, who is a housewife, said the five of them went into “panic mode” and tried pounding the shutter doors and shouting to get some attention but saw no one outside the outlet.

Though they eventually caught the attention of a group of boys passing by outside the mall, the boys could not do much despite calling the mall’s security guards. Attempts to call the KFC hotline also failed to bear fruit.

Eventually, after about an hour, the women found a back door in the kitchen and went out at about 11.15pm. This was before the police arrived.