A man, believed to be mentally unstable, drove off with an ambulance from the Accident and Emergency Department of the Sarawak General Hospital today, only to abandon the vehicle about a kilometre away, and return to the hospital where he was warded.

According to Borneo Post Online, the 36-year-old man, who was warded at the hospital yesterday, had expressed his eagerness to get out of the hospital and go to Serian.

He found his "lucky break" when a private ambulance arrived at the hospital about 12.50pm, attending to another patient. As the patient in the ambulance was being offloaded, the man hopped into the vehicle and drove it away.

The vehicle was found parked outside a shopping mall, about a kilometre away from the hospital, an hour later. The man, however, was not in the mall, but was tracked down at the hospital where he "hijacked" the ambulance from.

Kuching police deputy chief Abang Junaidi Abang Annuar confirmed the case when contacted by the portal, and said the man is believed to be a psychiatric patient.