Shocked to find neighbour a bombmaker

Blast site: The corridor of the Taman Pandan flat in Sungai Puyu, Butterworth, where the improvised device blew up. — ZHAFARAN NASIB/The Star

BUTTERWORTH: A 32-year-old man has admitted to the police he learnt how to make a bomb from the Internet and even bought the ingredients online.

The suspected bombmaker also had a gun and homemade ammunition for it, plus a karambit knife, which police seized after one of his improvised devices blew up at the corridor of the Taman Pandan flats in Sungai Puyu here, where he lives.

North Seberang Prai OCPD Asst Comm Mohd Asri Shafie said police received a call from the public at about 1pm on Sunday about the explosion at the flat.

He said according to a witness, the explosion occurred at 12.56pm that day in front of a unit on the upper floor of the four-storey flat.

He said the police bomb squad, forensic and K9 units from the state and district police headquarters were sent to the location.

“Checks by our bomb specialist found the material used was an improvised explosive device (IED).

“Only part of the IED exploded and we are still investigating how it detonated,” he said in a statement.

ACP Mohd Asri said following the incident, police arrested the man and a 37-year-old foreign woman near the flat at about 8.30pm on the same day.

He said interrogation of the man led police to the discovery of another homemade bomb, a pistol and homemade ammunition, as well as a karambit knife.

“The karambit knife, pistol and the homemade ammunition were found in the bag of the female suspect,” he said.

He also said the male suspect admitted to learning bombmaking techniques from the Internet and had also bought the materials needed online.

He said both suspects, who are believed to be factory workers and who have no prior criminal records, were found negative for drugs and have been remanded until Oct 12.

The case has been classified under Section 6 of the Explosives Act 1957, Section 8 of the Corrosive and Explosive Substances and Offensive Weapons Act 1958/ Section 8 of Weapons Act 1960.

A visit by The Star to the Taman Pandan flat found that the unit, rented by both suspects, was locked.

Several residents of the flat were clearly shocked to find out that a suspected bombmaker was living among them.

Labourer Tan Seong Beng, 45, when met at his house yesterday, said both the suspects were picked up by the police on Sunday after he and a few other neighbours informed the police about the explosion.

He said the suspects had been living there for about four years.

“They are a quiet couple and don’t mingle much with others,” he said.

Recalling the incident, Tan said he heard a loud explosion just a few metres away from his unit at about 12.50pm on Sunday.

“At first I didn’t know what caused the noise, but I came out of my house and saw some debris from a package near my house,” he said.

Tan, who has been living at the flat for more than 22 years, said the corridor of the flat where the explosion happened was a common corridor used by residents daily.

“Luckily it did not explode when we passed by earlier that day,” he said, adding that he lived at the flat with his wife and six-year-old son.

Tan said that before the explosion, he noticed a plastic package at the corridor near his unit but did not suspect any harm and ignored it.

Another resident, who requested anonymity, said on the day of the incident, he saw white smoke blowing from the suspects’ unit early in the morning.

“Some of us even asked the man what the smoke was but he had told us that he was barbequeing,” he said.