Three govt premises receive bomb threat emails

JOHOR BAHRU: Three government premises in Johor Bahru Selatan received emails containing bomb threats from a particular individual on Monday.

Johor Bahru Selatan Police Chief ACP Raub Selamat said the emails received by all three government premises are believed to originate from abroad.

He said one of the three government premises that received the emails is Menara Majlis Bandaraya Johor Bahru (MBJB) in Bukit Senyum here.

“So far, in the Johor Bahru district, we have received three police reports from government premises stating that they have received the same email.

“It seems that the sender of the email is not specific to any one place, but rather general,” he told reporters after leading security checks at Menara MBJB here.

Earlier, Raub said that police had conducted inspections on all 22 floors of Menara MBJB and did not detect any suspicious objects.

ACP Raub added that the case is being investigated under Section 506 of the Penal Code for criminal intimidation and Section 233 of the Communications and Multimedia Act for the offence of improper use of network facilities.

Earlier, the MBJB Corporate and Public Relations Department said in a statement that the agency had received a bomb threat via email.

The email was received in the morning and was sent under the name ‘Takahiro Karawasa’.

“Following the email, the council filed a police report with the Johor Baru South District Police Headquarters.

“All staff and members of the public were asked to evacuate the Menara MBJB building and to wait at the assembly area at noon until the police inspection was completed,” it said.

The statement added that there were about 500 people in the building during the incident.

“The public and staff were allowed to re-enter the building at 2pm and resume operations as usual.

“The police have confirmed that the threat was fake, and the Menara MBJB is safe for operation,” it said, adding that operations are running as usual during office hours.

Similar bomb threat emails sent under the same name, Takahiro Karawasa, were also delivered to government agencies in the Philippines this year as well as Korea in August 2023.

In response to the emails sent in 2023, Karawasa, who is an actual lawyer in Japan went to X to air his grievances.