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)