Police confirm explosion in Gurun was due to rocket ammo

The police have confirmed today that the explosion in Taman Ria Mesra II which claimed three lives here on Wednesday was due to ammunition from a high-explosive anti-tank rocket.

Kedah Police acting chief, Datuk Zakaria Yusof said the ammunition was of a type used by the Malaysian Armed Forces (MAF) and his department was collaborating with the MAF to investigate the matter.

"The explosion was caused by a rocket launcher ammo, which was used to destroy tanks," he said in a press conference after visting the site here.

He said he believed there was more than one bomb that exploded because the area of the blast crater was about one metre, but investigations were still ongoing.

"The bomb (ammo) was used by the MAF and the victim who died was trying to extract precious items from it," he said.

Zakaria said the police were still collecting fragments from the ammo which exploded to help in investigations besides recording statements from the residents nearby.

"We have also received good cooperation from the MAF to improve the Standard Operating Procedure, if needed.

"We will continue investigations into how the bomb (ammo) was sneaked out of the army training camp," he said.

Meanwhile, Zakaria said the police had received 61 complaints to date relating to house damage caused by the explosion from the residents of the housing area.

An explosion had occurred at the house of an army personnel on Wedensday, which killed three people and injured another two, while more than 40 houses were affected by the incident.

The explosion which occurred at around 4.45pm killed an army personnel, Ayub Hashim, 34, his eight-year-old daughter Nur Idayu Syahirah Ayob and his neighbour's son Aqif Mohd Shahrizal, four.

Meanwhile, Ayob's wife Sharifah Azlina Hashim, 30, who is six months pregnant, and neighbour Zuraida Mat Rotebe, 30 (Aqif's mother) were severely injured.

It has been reported that Sharifah Azlina's unborn child had died due to the incident.