Six year old boy killed in fish bomb blast

KOTA KINABALU: A six-year old boy was killed when a fish bomb detonated while an 11-member Sea Gypsy family was constructing it at a stilt house off Pulau Bum Bum near Semporna

Four other family members - Masitah Elexson, 27, Rashi Elexson ,10,  Dantai Kaldi, 27,  and Nosidah Tirun - were injured in the Wednesday morning blast.

Police are now hunting for three members of the family in their investigations, having arrested the 50-year old father of the boy who was killed.

Sabah Police Commissioner Datuk Jalaluddin Abdul Rahman said on Thursday that the father initially claimed that a someone by the name of ``Boy’’ had thrown the bomb into the house at Kg Hidayat in Bum Bum island.

However, the father later admitted that they were making a fish bomb that detonated accidentally.

Jalaluddin added that the suspect also admitted to police that he buried his son Julpi Elexson without reporting the death and burial to the police, and that the suspect said that Julpi suffered serious facial injuries in the incident.

He added that the incident came to light at 6.30am on Thursday when the police received a public tip-off about the explosion.

Jalaluddin said police were obtaining a court order to exhume the boy’s body for a post-mortem, and that three other adult members of the family had fled.

He said that police believed that the three were in the Semporna area, adding that the family did not have any personal identification documents.

Jalaluddin also rubbished a claim by a retired Special Branch officer that intelligence was not being shared between state police and the Eastern Sabah Security Command (ESSCOM).

He said there were weekly intelligence exchanges between state police and Esscom

Jalaluddin also disclosed that police were continuing their operations against cyber gambling activities and so far this year they have arrested 391 people and seized 587 computers and RM22,295.