M'SIAN POLICE SHOOT DEAD FIVE ARMED ROBBERS

PENANG (Malaysia), March 7 (Bernama) -- Five armed men, believed to be
Vietnamese who had staged a robbery, were shot dead in a shootout with the
police at Km15.7 of the Butterworth-Kulim Expressway (BKE) here early Saturday.

State police chief Ayub Yaakob said they were among eight men
suspected to have robbed 11 Vietnamese at a hostel in Taman Perak, Kulim, in
Kedah and were making their getaway to Seberang Jaya in two cars.

The five, in a silver Perodua Kenari car, were stopped by a police team
along the BKE at 3.10am but they starting firing at the police, their shots
hitting the rear windscreen of the police patrol car, he said.

"The policemen, in defence, fired several shots at the car and killed the
five men in it," he told reporters after flagging off a community and Rakan Cop
treasure hunt at the Penang police headquarters, here.

Ayub said a team of five policemen on duty, acting on a tip-off from their
counterparts in Kulim, had bumped into the robbers at the Penanti rest and
recreation area but they sped off on seeing the police.

However, he said, another police team managed to stop the car at Km15.7 of
the BKE.

"A pistol, a live bullet, two ski masks, 11 machetes, a metal cutter and a
crowbar were found in the car which had false registration plates," he said.

Preliminary investigation showed that the car was reported missing on Oct 20
last year, he added.

Ayub said the bodies of the five men were sent to the Seberang Jaya
Hospital.

He also said that Penang police would help their counterparts in Kulim to
track down the three other men who had escaped in another car.

Ayub said the state police had launched a special operation code-named "Ops
Rantau" to monitor criminal cases involving foreigners, especially Vietnamese,
who might have lost their jobs due to cost-cutting by factories due to the
economic downturn.

-- BERNAMA