KUALA LUMPUR:Following the earth-shattering sound and tremors felt by residents in several places in Sabah and Labuan this morning, the police have denied carrying out any bomb detonation or disposal activities in the area, today.

This was confirmed by Deputy Inspector-General of Police Datuk Seri Acryl Sani Abdullah Sani when contacted by Bernama.

“I have checked with the Sabah Police Commissioner (Datuk Hazani Ghazali) and no detonations were made. It is possible that the explosion was caused by activities involving the petroleum industry. Maybe you can check with Petronas," he said.

Acryl Sani said the police had so far not received any reports from residents regarding the incident, and the police were conducting an investigation to detect the cause of the explosion and the tremors.

Residents around the districts Sipitang and Beaufort in Sabah and Labuan were startled at about 11 am today as they claimed to have heard a loud explosion and tremors lasting about 10 seconds.

Meanwhile, the Royal Malaysian Navy (RMN) said that the sound of the explosion and tremors had nothing to do with the Borneo 1/21 military exercise it had conducted.

According to an RMN spokesman, the exercise aimed at testing the readiness and agility of its assets in East Malaysia was only carried out on Thursday (Jan 28).

"Negative. (The explosion and tremors) was not caused by the RMN as the Borneo Military Exercise only took place on Jan 28," he said via Whatsapp application.

Earlier, Beaufort District Police chief DSP Azmir Abdul Razak dispelled allegations by netizens that the loud explosion and tremors were caused by an operation to dispose of a bomb discovered in Labuan recently, saying that the exercise had been carried out yesterday.

-- BERNAMA