Bomb hoax sparks panic among 300 IRB staff

KUALA LUMPUR - Panic gripped about 300 Inland Revenue Board (IRB) staff who had to vacate the building at Kampung Attap here due to a bomb scare, sparked by a telephone call that turned out to be a hoax.

The call was believed to have been received by the IRB telephone operator at 9.30am, forcing tenants to vacate the 21-storey building.

According to Aishah Salim who works in the Employees Provident Fund (teachers) office situated in the same building, the caller had informed the telephone operator that five bombs planted in the building would explode at 10.30am.

"The caller (a man) had claimed that since he hated IRB, he had decided to explode the building," Aishah, 40, told reporters.

Meanwhile, Dang Wangi police chief ACP Zainuddin Ahmad said police received a call from a security personnel at the building about the bomb around 10.11am and quickly dispatched a bomb disposal unit.

"The bomb squad carried out a flushing exercise and ordered all tenants in the building to vacate. However, upon inspection, no bomb was found and workers were allowed to return," he told Bernama through a short message service (SMS).

– Bernama