A pandemonium broke out when a concrete embankment at Puncak Setiawangsa collapsed last night.

Puncak Setiawangsa Resident Association assistant chairman Fauziah Jamaludin said residents of 20 bungalows on the hill were startled when they learned about the incident for 10 of the houses were located close to the embankment.

"This the first incident of its kind since I moved in here 16 years ago," she told reporters at the scene.

The Fire and Rescue Department and the police had asked the affected residents to vacate their homes and take their documents and essential items with them, and move their vehicles to a safe location.

A resident B. Selvarani, 26, said she heard a landslide behind her terrace house below the embankment.

"The fallen soil almost entered my house," said Selvarani who was doing her laundry then and immediately vacated the house with her family of four.