KUALA LUMPUR – Workers at nearby restaurants and shops claim they were unaware of yesterday’s arson incident involving the popular entertainment centre along Jalan Yap Kwan Seng here.
Jayakumar Raman, 67, the manager of a restaurant next to the bar, said that the entertainment club would open every night at 10pm and run until after midnight, up until 3am.
However, he said neither he nor his employees were aware of the incident since they closed their restaurant’s operations at about 10pm.
“I wasn’t here. It happened at midnight. None of us (the staff) saw the incident,” he said.
A cashier from a nearby convenience store here who preferred to be anonymous told Scoop that she only knew about the incident from a WhatsApp video sent by her colleague, who worked night shift at that time.
“My friend said that he heard something when the attack happened and rushed out to see what was happening.
“After he saw the fire, he promptly rushed to the hotel across the road to alert them. Subsequently, the hotel staff successfully contained the fire until the Fire and Rescue Department arrived,” she added.
The woman in her 30s also admitted to witnessing occasional fights at the bar, noting that it tends to get busy on weekends.
“We have seen people fighting there sometimes because they are drunk. It’s normal here.”
When asked if the bar has been operating as usual since the incident, she said she was unsure.
She added that some police officers were at the scene last night to investigate.
Checks by Scoop at the bar revealed several burn marks on the floor, but there was no barricade or police tape securing the area.
Yesterday, a petrol bomb was thrown into an entertainment centre in Jalan Yap Kwan Seng.
Dang Wangi police deputy chief Nazron Abd Yusof confirmed that a police report was lodged regarding the incident.
He said a CCTV footage revealed the incident occurred at 2.18am on May 9.
He said police will open an investigation paper under Section 435 of the Penal Code for mischief by fire with the intent to cause damage.
A viral video shows at least four men involved in the incident, where they were seen hurling an object – suspected to be a petrol bomb – before fleeing the scene. – May 10, 2024
