Labuan family injured in scuffle with robbers

LABUAN: Four in a family were injured as a result of a scuffle with three masked and armed robbers who broke into their house in the wee hour Sunday.

The robbers, armed with an air gun, machete and knife, and talked with a Malay-Philippines accent, escaped with cash of about RM10,000 and the family’s Toyota Altis car.

The complainant, a 39-year-old, told the police that he was awakened at 3 am when the house security alarm went off and immediately went downstairs to check it out, only to stumble upon three men wearing caps and covering their faces with black cloth, with one of them pointing the long machete at him.

His scream for help prompted his father, 72, brother, 33, and wife, 38, to come downstairs to help and a scuffle ensued between them and the robbers for about 30 minutes.

During the commotion, the elderly man sustained wound cuts in his right cheek, right arm and left hand, while the complainant and his brother sustained minor injuries in their right eyebrows, and his wife was injured in her left knee. Worrying about the safety of the family, the wife finally surrendered their cash and car keys to the robbers, allowing them to leave after the house automatic gate was opened by the complainant’s father.

Labuan police chief Supt Muhamad Farid Ahmad said the complainant’s wife called the police at 4.15 am and right now, investigation was ongoing to hunt down the robbers.