Thousands evacuate Petronas towers

Thousands evacuate Petronas towers

KUALA LUMPUR (AP): Thousands of workers and shoppers were
evacuated on Wednesday from the world's tallest buildings, the
Petronas Twin Towers, following a bomb threat that came as many
Malaysians were just learning of the terror tragedy gripping the
United States.

Police bomb squads found no explosives in the 88-story towers
and people were allowed back to all floors shortly before noon
(11 a.m. in Jakarta), a little over three hours after the threat.
No one was hurt, but six people fainted during the evacuation and
were taken to a nearby clinic.

Just as the Petronas towers were declared safe, a threat was
phoned in to the IBM building. Some 2,000 people were evacuated
for two hours while police combed the 24-story landmark, which
houses local offices of IBM, Standard Chartered Bank and other
firms. No bomb was found.

Police stepped up security at all embassies in Kuala Lumpur,
especially the U.S. Embassy, which was open Wednesday. Airport
officials also increased security and said passengers and baggage
would be searched thoroughly.

Dahalan Ahmad, head of Kuala Lumpur's police bomb disposal
unit, urged building operators to tighten precautions.
"We do not take any threat lightly," Dahalan said. "We will
investigate everything."

Employees at the IBM building said that the threat was the
third in five years, but IBM Malaysia's chief executive officer,
Boon Seng Chuan, said that no immediate security upgrade was
planned: "It's business as usual. We have a proper process of
evacuation."

The threat against the Petronas towers came during morning
working hours, some 12 hours after hijackers flew jetliners into
the World Trade Center in New York, causing both towers to
collapse, and into the Pentagon in Washington.

Thousands of people in the nickel-plated Petronas towers were
told to leave their buildings, unaware of the bomb threat until
they reached the ground.

"We were told on the P.A. system that there was an emergency
situation at the towers, so we were asked to evacuate," said
Tarajit Singh, a finance supervisor for Petronas, the national
oil company.

"We had to walk down and leave the building," Tarajit said. "I
walked down 58 floors. Only those who were sickly or expecting
got to use the elevators."

Building officials initially told reporters that the
evacuation was a routine drill. But police confirmed that a
threat had been called in from a public telephone to building
management at 8:30 a.m. (7:30 Jakarta time). The caller said that
a bomb would explode at 9 a.m. (8 a.m. Jakarta time).

Petronas called the police, who advised immediate evacuation
of all tenants from the towers and shoppers from the mall on
lower levels while a floor-by-floor search was conducted.

"We think it's a prank call," police spokesman Chief Inspector
Azli Zakaria said.