As 37 Umno supreme council members huddled in a room to discuss explosive party affairs, a mechanical robot appeared at the Putra World Trade Centre in Kuala Lumpur this afternoon.

Accompanied by a number of police officers, it is believed that the robot had been summoned to the location to inspect a suspicious-looking package found in the open car park outside the building.

The robot from the bomb disposal unit was still in the vicinity of the building at 5.15pm to check the 'package' while some 10 police officers kept watch.

The area was cordoned off and scores of journalists were barred from approaching the scene.

Police: It was a false alarm

However, it is unclear who had alerted the police and those inside the Putra World Trade Centre which housed the Umno headquarters were not asked to evacuate.

"There is no sense of alarm or anything of that sort. The police are just doing their job and there were no orders to evacuate the building," said a journalist who was at the scene.

The Umno supreme council meeting, which started at about 3pm continued uninterrupted on the 38th floor of the tower block.

Commenting on the matter later, Dang Wangi district police chief ACP Zulkarnain Abdul Rahman said that the incident was a false alarm.

"Nothing much happened," he said, adding that the bomb disposal unit did not find any form of explosives.

He said the police acted after receiving a phone call on the alleged security threat.