Fatal ending: A crowd gathering at the scene of the shootout in Sungai Siput.
IPOH: Three robbers who had been terrorising their victims since July last year finally paid with their lives during a shootout with the police.
Believed to be foreigners, they were about to break into a house at Jalan Lasah, Sungai Siput, when a special task force from the state police contingent spotted them at about 4.45am yesterday.
State deputy police chief Deputy Commissioner Datuk A. Paramasivam said that the suspects attempted to escape when they spotted the police and started shooting when ordered to stop their car.
“A chase followed and they continued to fire shots at the police throughout the 2km route.
“At one point, they lost control of their vehicle, but even then they continued shooting,” he told reporters yesterday.
DCP Parasivam said the suspects were eventually killed in the shootout.
He added that police discovered a .22 Walther pistol, four parang, two metal cutters, a crowbar, two axes, three ski masks and five pairs of gloves inside the car, which had been reported stolen in Bukit Puchong, Selangor, on Aug 20 last year.
He said no personal identification document was found on the suspects, believed to be in their 30s and 40s.
“This incident follows the arrest of four other foreign men at a house in Kanthan Baru, Chemor, on Jan 7,” he said.
“At the house, we found personal identification documents of victims and items such as laptops taken during a robbery in Batu Gajah on Jan 5.
“We believe that all seven foreigners are part of the same group behind at least 17 armed robberies that have been reported in the Ipoh, Batu Gajah, Taiping, Sungai Siput and Kuala Kangsar districts since July last year,” added DCP Paramasivam.
He also said they would usually rob their victims during the wee hours of the morning and were known to hurt their victims by hurling punches and raining blows on their heads with the butt of the parang.
The four suspects in custody were being remanded until Jan 21, he said.
