MELAKA: A morning alert sent out by the Fire and Rescue Department seemed realistic enough for recipients to believe a bomb squad was sent to dislodge explosives at the Tenaga Nasional Bhd (TNB) Transmission Assets building in Ayer Keroh.
Even the media, who were among the recipients, were caught by surprise and rushed to the scene only to find out that it was just a dry run for a bomb threat evacuation drill participated by over 100 TNB staff at the building.
The drill was part of TNB's Safety Week programme.
A bomb disposal squad from the Melaka police headquarters arrived at the scene within minutes, fully dressed in bomb-proof suits at the building in Taman Tasik Utama.
Several fire drills had been conducted by TNB throughout the years, but this was the first tme the company held a bomb threat evacuation drill, Melaka TNB senior engineer for lines and cable Mohd Hazmel Hanafi said today.
He said the company had pre-planned the drill with the police and Fire and Rescue Department.
"We met with the authorities two months ago to discuss how to carry out this drill," he said.
"TNB wants their staff to be alert and enchance their safety skills."
The drill took place from 10.30am to 11.45am, where a black bag with a buzzing sound was purportedly found by a security guard in front of the building.
Later, he informed his superior who turned the building's emergency alarm on.
"We managed to evacuate everyone out of the building to the assembly point in about five minutes. After that, the authorities were called in to the scene." Mohd Hazmel said.