RESIDENTS of a five-storey PKNS flats in Shah Alam panicked and dashed out of their homes when the floor of a ground-floor unit caved in yesterday afternoon.

Fodziah Abu Kassim said she was watching television with her two sons when suddenly there was a loud rumble. ''The whole unit vibrated and suddenly the floors of two rooms in my unit just caved in,'' she said.

''The brick wall that partitions the two rooms then cracked with a loud and frightening sound,'' she said, adding that a hole, big enough for a fist to go through, emerged.

Fodziah, together with her 23-year-old sons Ahmad Farid and Mazli Omar, scrambled out of their home and alerted residents living above the flats in Section 19, Shah Alam.

The cracks are not just lines, but holes on the walls.

''For 30 minutes we watched as all the other 19 families ran out to safety,'' she said.

Built on peat soil 12 years ago, the pre-fabricated flats in Jalan 19/3 has a total 60 units. Fodziah's unit in Block 5 is one among 20.

''Six families had move out to live with their relatives while the other 13 are housed at the Section 19 community hall, near Block 5,'' said Fodziah.

Residents' ad-hoc committee chairman Razali Sharan, 36, took the Selangor Economic Development Corporation (PKNS) to task for the near miss and inconvenience caused to the residents.

He claimed that he had, since 2000, lodged several complaints after residents noticed cracks on the walls of their flats and the infrastructure around it.

''No action was taken. Now, with the latest incident, the problem is serious and PKNS should rebuild the block with proper piling,'' he said.

Razali, who lives on the fifth floor, said PKNS should not turn a blind eye to the predicament the residents had been put into and should address the situation.

The floors are giving way.

''As an immediate measure, PKNS should provide descent homes to the affected families. We can't be at the community hall for long as we have wives and children,'' he said.

Consumer Association of Klang president A. Devadass, whose office is in the neighbourhood, said the affected families should be given reasonable compensation of at least RM650 per family to rent a house until the the flats were rebuilt. PKNS senior press officer Mohd Wazir Abdul Gani said the engineers were aware of the situation at Block 5 and would conduct a soil test to ascertain the situation.

On the welfare of the affected residents, he said, for Fodziah an alternative house in Section 24 would be a temporary home, while for the rest, a plan was being worked out.