Sweet surprise turns to shock
THE STAR
SUBANG JAYA:
It was a wedding anniversary to remember – but for all the wrong reasons.
Personal driver S. Jaiseelan, 32, took his wife Bavani, also 32, to the Movida restaurant in IOI Boulevard as a surprise event on their second wedding anniversary.
This was the couple’s first time at the restaurant, located on the ground floor of the boulevard facing the Damansara-Puchong Expressway (LDP).
Jaiseelan’s younger brother Kavilan, 27, said he briefly joined the couple at the restaurant to celebrate their anniversary with them at about 12.30am yesterday.
The technician only stayed until 1.30am and was already at his Taman Puchong Indah home when he received a call from his brother’s phone at 2am.
Kavilan rushed back to the restaurant after an unknown caller told him that his brother and sister-in-law were injured in an explosion. Two men had driven up to the outlet and hurled a grenade in, past a concrete barrier.
“When I reached the place at around 2.10am, the police were already there,” said Kavilan.
Mayhem at Movida: Victims of the Puchong explosion getting help from the authorities and the public.
“I saw groups of people gathered at different spots around the area,” he explained.
Kavilan said that with the help of people at the scene, he rushed his brother and sister-in-law to a private hospital in Bandar Sunway for treatment.
According to him, Jaiseelan had been warded in the High Dependency Unit of the hospital for critical injuries on his leg, neck and face.
Bavani was scalded in the explosion and will be undergoing surgery for a fractured wrist.
Another victim, Chef Liang Zhi Sing, 29, was the first person who came into contact with the hand grenade.
He told a friend that the grenade hit his head, before it dropped onto the ground and exploded seconds later.
“He said at first, he did not know what was it, he only saw that it was a round item that was grey in colour,” the friend told The Star later.
Liang suffered injuries on his right hand and foot.
He was at the outlet with his wife, a 30-year-old Chinese national Ren Jing, and businessman friend Ch’ng Yik Chao, 30, when the explosion occurred around 1.45am yesterday.
The three victims were sent to the Serdang Hospital where they had to undergo surgery to remove shards of broken glass from their bodies.
Security officer Mohd Yussoff, 31, described the explosion as “very loud” and said he saw heavy clouds of smoke billowing from the restaurant and patrons injured by the shattered glass panels by the time he reached the scene on foot.
A staff at the restaurant said there were about 20 people at the establishment when the explosion broke out. Despite the pre-dawn explosion, business was back to normal in the industrial area by 10am yesterday.
But the bloodstained chairs, bloody shoeprints, shattered panels and broken glass scattered around the restaurant terrace was a grim reminder of what had transpired before dawn.
A check by The Star at Movida last night showed the place to be lively and almost full house.
A patron, who declined to be identified, said he was aware of the explosion which injured eight.
“I’m here because it’s my favourite joint. Of course, the fear is there but it could happen anywhere else,” he said.
Shattered glass was also seen scattered all over the parking lot near the nightspot.
