Live grenade found in St. Carolus Hospital

Live grenade found in St. Carolus Hospital

JAKARTA (JP): Patients and hospital staff were in shock on
Tuesday afternoon after a live hand grenade was found in a
warehouse of the St. Carolus Hospital, on Jl. Salemba Raya in
Central Jakarta.

The National Police bomb squad safely removed the grenade from
the warehouse, called the Semar Ward, where the hospital's oxygen
tanks are stored.

Central Jakarta police chief Sr. Comr. Mathius Salempang said
that the grenade had been taken to the National Police Mobile
Brigade Headquarters in Kelapa Dua, Bogor, for further
examination and identification.

"The grenade needs to be examined before I can make a
statement," he said, adding that the explosive device was found
by a hospital staff member.

The warehouse, Mathius said, faces the main road of Jl.
Salemba Raya.

The evacuation process resulted in panic, with visitors
hurriedly running out of the hospital, after rumors circulated
that the pin of the grenade had already been removed.

Director of St. Carolus Hospital Waskito Budi Waluyo told
reporters that the hospital had received a threat via facsimile
from an unidentified person two weeks ago.

"The sender had threatened that if this hospital did not
transfer Rp 30 million to an account at Bank Central Asia (BCA),
the hospital would be bombed," Waskito said.

"However, the sender had given a deadline of 1 p.m. on the day
the fax was sent." (ylt/01)