SEPANG, 15 April: Security measures at the Kuala Lumpur International Airport will be improved to increase surveillance efficiency especially concerning members of the public who enter the country with prohibited items.
According to the Selangor Police Chief, Datuk Hussein Omar Khan, several of these measures include the use of electric scooters and the installation of scanners that can detect items such as firecrackers and weapons.
“The use of the electric scooters had been planned at the beginning of the year and has been agreed upon by the Selangor’s state government for police use.
“When we have them (scooters), the police would be able to patrol faster and wider within a short period of time. This method will be in practice once we have received the assets,” he said to the media after the handover of duties of KLIA district police chief.
On the scanners, Hussein said it is a crucial asset to prevent incidences such as the recent shooting at KLIA Terminal 1.
“If the people bring firecrackers into the airport, we can’t stop them because it’s a public place.
“At the airport, there are airside and landside where the airside (area) is prohibited while the landside (area) is open, so maybe there should be stricter control there so that people don’t bring prohibited items to endanger civilians at the airport,” he added.
Hussein said the people can now enter the airport area without strict controls unlike other countries that have scanners.
Other recommendations, he added include closing the corridors near the gate of the arrival and departure halls.
He said the vehicle parking lane close to the arrivals and departures gates also exposed the airport to high risk because individuals could park their cars and enter the airport easily.
“We (the police) have proposed this for a long time because we used to disallow the public from entering the area because of security factors and it threatens the security of the airport area because people can drive in and enter the airport without control.
“On the other hand, the outside lane would make it easier for police officers to patrol and it would be more difficult to do carry out undesirable acts,” Hussein explained.
Earlier it was reported that there was a shooting incident at Kuala Lumpur International Airport (KLIA) Terminal 1 early yesterday morning.
In the incident, the suspect initially threw firecrackers injuring two civilians, before approaching the victim who was also his wife.
The suspect fired two shots at the wife who was waiting for the Umrah pilgrims to return at the KLIA Terminal 1 arrival hall, but one shot missed and the other shot hit one of the suspect’s wife’s bodyguard.
In the incident, the victim was injured in the abdomen and is currently being treated in a hospital. – Bernama
