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)