Bomb hoax at PT Dirgantara

BANDUNG: Some 800 employees of aircraft producer PT Dirgantara Indonesia, formerly IPTN, evacuated their work places following a bomb threat on Tuesday morning.

Company spokesman Rakhendi Triyatna said that Poppy, the secretary of the company's president, received a phone call from a man saying that the nine-story building would be blown up as several bombs had been planted in the compound.

"Poppy reported the telephone call to the company's Search and Rescue team, which is used to handle fires and other dangerous situations. The SAR team contacted the police bomb squad and the Siliwangi (Military Command) combat battalion," Rakhendi said. "Very carefully we told the employees to vacate the building."

Everyone left the building in a very orderly manner. Many of them thought that it was a training exercise, as they had been trained to face a bomb threat on numerous occasions, Rakhendi said.

"The building was empty within 30 minutes, and the employees were informed of the bomb threat at 10 a.m. as the police placed a line around the building."

"It was the only bomb threat since the company was established in 1976," he said. (25/sur)