Bomb threat causes evacuation of major hospital
Bomb threat causes evacuation of major hospital
JAKARTA (JP): A bomb threat at state-run Cipto Mangunkusumo
General Hospital (RSCM) led to the hasty evacuation of patients,
many still in their beds connected to intravenous drips, by
medical staff on Monday.
The threat, received by an operator at the hospital at 8:15
a.m., also forced the country's oldest hospital to cancel 30
scheduled surgeries, the hospital's director for general affairs
Soeparji Sudibyo said.
The hospital also decided to temporarily halt their public
services, stranding some 200 people who were waiting in line.
Some of the people immediately left the hospital, forgoing
medical treatment.
About three hours later, officers from the National Police's
bomb squad declared the hospital safe.
Like most of the recent bomb threats received throughout the
city, the threat at RSCM was delivered by a male voice over the
phone.
According to the head of hospital security, Soemadi, the bomb
threat was received by Syaiful, a telephone operator at the
hospital, who immediately reported the threat to him.
The unknown caller told the operator that a bomb planted in
the hospital would explode at 11 a.m., Soemadi said.
During the conversation the telephone operator asked the
caller's identity.
In response, the caller said, "I'm one of (former president)
Soeharto's men who is a turncoat," Soemadi quoted Syaiful as
saying.
Soemadi relayed the bomb threat to the hospital's director,
Achmad Djodjosoegito, who called an emergency meeting.
The hospital had at least 40 patients receiving in-house
treatment at the time.
The meeting resulted in the decision to move all the patients
to one of the hospital's entrance gates.
The hospital's public service staff resumed their work at
midday, but they only treated patients who had registered their
names before the evacuation.
The capital has received more than a dozen bomb threats, all
of which turned out to be hoaxes, via telephone calls from an
unknown caller or callers in the past three months, helping to
raise the level of fear felt by many Jakartans.
A bomb threat occurred on Wednesday of last week when a
passenger on board a Garuda Indonesia flight from Bali to Jakarta
read a note written on the in-flight magazine which stated a bomb
had been planted under his seat.
Like the other threats, this one also turned out to be a hoax.
(emf/bsr)