SIBU: Residents of a longhouse in Sungai Asan Bayu near here were shocked to hear that an object, found on the roof of one of the units yesterday, could be debris from a Chinese Long March 5B rocket.
Bintangor Fire and Rescue Station (BBP) chief Nicholas Belulin said the discovery of the object measuring 5.8cm wide and 7.62cm long was made by the owner and family of the unit in Rumah Renyam, Sungai Asan Bayu when they came home on Saturday evening.
He said officers at Sibu BBP got the call about the discovery at 8.50pm.
Nicholas adds a team from Bintangor BBP arrived at the longhouse at 10.38pm, involving a distance of 37km.
"There, the team found an object had fallen on the roof and penetrated it, where it got stuck in the wooden beams of the house. There was a tear in the roof.
"The object was then taken by officers from the Sibu headquarters and Lanang Police Station for further investigation," he said today.
According to the owner, the object may have been there a few weeks because he and his family rarely returned to the longhouse due to work and only noticed it when they saw a hole in the roof.
The owner lodged a report at the Sungai Merah Police Station on Saturday evening stating that his neighbor had said that he heard a loud bang from the roof of his room late on July 30.
Sibu District Police Chief ACP Zulkipli Suhaili ,when contacted by Bernama, said the report of the discovery of the object was received late yesterday and that it would be sent to the Chemistry Department and the Atomic Energy Licensing Board branch in Kuching for confirmation.
On July 31, the Malaysian Space Agency had confirmed that the sighting of bright objects seen streaking across the night sky of Sarawak on July 30, were those from the Chinese Long March 5B rocket debris.
Most of the debris were reported to have fallen in the Sulu Sea.--BERNAMA