KOTA KINABALU: The knife-wielding man, who was under the influence of drugs, had apparently held two women at knifepoint in yesterday’s hostage drama at Damai Luyang, here.
Sabah police commissioner Datuk Ramli Din revealed that the 27-year-old man had earlier held a maid hostage after breaking into a house at Taman Istimewa in Jalan Kolam, located right behind the Luyang police station.
Ramli said the man panicked when the homeowner spotted him and contacted the police.
“Shortly after the police arrived, the man released the maid and ran to another house where he grabbed another woman by force,” he told reporters in Tawau.
He confirmed the man was a foreigner and that he had tested positive for syabu.
In the 7.30pm incident yesterday, the shirtless man had dragged his second victim down a busy road while pointing a knife at her neck.
Police were deployed to the scene to control traffic flow and cordoned off a section of the busy road to keep the public away from the area as police tried to negotiate with the man in the two-hour standoff.
The woman was eventually rescued near the Queen Elizabeth Hospital 2 about 9.50pm.
Police personnel had disguised themselves as medical staff and approached the man on the pretext of wanting to check on the woman’s condition and at the same time, calm the man down.
The team then arrested the man and seized a six-inch knife from him.
Police have remanded the man to facilitate investigations under Section 3 of the Kidnapping Act 1961 for abduction, wrongful restraint or wrongful confinement for ransom and Section 307 of the Penal Code for attempting to murder.
