Once a gangster’s paradise

ONE of the busiest streets in Malacca, Jalan Bunga Raya, is a far cry from its old image of being a perilous place in town.

Between the 1940s and the early 1970s the road was notorious for its gangs, especially around the once-famous City Park, the area around the town’s cluster of movie theatres and the nearby Bunga Raya Pantai village which borders the Malacca River.