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.