Dozens of tents set up by campers at Padang Merbok to protest against alleged electoral fraud in the 13th general election were seized by the authorities at 4.30am today.

NONE Solidariti Anak Muda Malaysia (SAMM) chairperson Badrul Hisham Shaharin (left) - one of the organisers of the Occupy Padang Merbok event - said armed policemen and Kuala Lumpur City Hall (DBKL) enforcement men cleared the field.

“We met with DBKL at 1am and gave an assurance that by 8am we will empty Padang Merbok, but DBKL at 4.30am with armed police grabbed the tents and used violence, kicked those who were asleep,’ Badrul Hisham tweeted this morning.

Reads a tweet by another of the organisers, ‘Asalkan Bukan Umno’ (ABU): “DBKL officers raided Padang Merbok escorted by the police. They attacked the tents, confiscated them and left in a hurry!”

About 100 protesters had camped at the field in Kuala Lumpur since the ‘Black 505’ rally last Saturday.

Yesterday Federal Territories Minister Tengku Adnan Tengku Mansor said his ministry and DBKL have lodged a police report against the campers and urged the police to evict them as they would ‘create chaos’.

Inspector-General of Police Khalid Abu Bakar said yesterday that although DBKL has jurisdiction over the field, the police were ready to assist.

'Campers showed tremendous self-restraint'

Anything But Umno (ABU) chief Haris Ibrahim when reached this afternoon said there were some 250 to 300 campers when the raid took place.

"It was dark and difficult to estimate the number of DBKL men, but I would say it was a large contingent of enforcement officers whose number appeared to at least equal the number of those camping there," Haris said.

He said the DBKL men were accompanied by the police.

"I was also informed that some of the policemen were armed, though I did not personally see this," he said.

Haris added that most of the campers were already awake prior to the raid as the group's security personnel had alerted them as more and more DBKL men arrived at the camping site.

"Those that were camping exercised tremendous self-restraint. There was no retaliation or attempt to defend the tents. In short, we allowed the tents to be taken away.

"In fact, we withdrew from the tents to avoid any possible untoward incident," Haris said, adding that the raid was over in some 10 minutes.

Asked if anyone was hurt the in the incident, he replied: "None from our side, but I don't know if the DBKL men tripped on the tents and hurt themselves."

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