Bomb threat at Penang High Court building

A bomb threat at about 11am sent some 100 people out of the Penang High Court building as police moved in to do a search.

The crowd - judges, deputy public prosecutors, lawyers and members of the public - were herded out as the police bomb disposal team and K-9 unit arrived.

"We received an anonymous call about the bomb at about 10am.

"A man with (a) middle-Eastern voice informed that there were two bombs at the scene," said Penang Criminal Investigation Department chief SAC Mazlan Kesah who was on the scene.

Minutes later, Mazlan called off the search as no bomb was found.

When contacted, Mazlan said that police arrived at the scene about 15 minutes after the call was received.

He added that this was the sixth time since last year that the courts have been subjected to bomb threats.

"We believe that this time, it happened because there was a public property auction.

"The threat was meant to disturb the proceedings," he said.

Mazlan noted that after a one-hour search, police found that it had been a "hoax".