Penang Bridge bomb hoax?

Music: Guillemots - Take Me Out (Franz Ferdinand cover) (click to download)

No, April 1st has passed and I am far too old to be pullin' April Fool's jokes.

I hate to be a rumour-monger (except to be a bystander of such things) but word has been circulated throughout the island that at 1600 hrs, a bomb threat on the Penang Bridge was reported to the concessionaire, Penang Bridge Sdn. Bhd. (PBSB). This resulted in an almost 4 hour traffic standstill in Penang and the local authorities had to clear off the bridge for safety reasons.

Now, the big deal is that many of my fellow islanders use this bridge to earn a living going to and fro Penang Island and Butterworth. A bomb threat as believable as this certainly raises eyebrows because of its severe impact to the local authorities monitoring and defusing the situation. This also causes panic among the locals as the bridge plays a vital role in their daily earnings.

Managed to copy a snapshot of the bandwidth-congested 'Penang Bridge Blog' at 1740 hrs. The time indicated for the bridge's webcam is on a 10-15 minute delay. It is important to note that many people were supposed to be heading back to their respective homes (mainland or island) after a hard day's work. The reason why the roads appear vacant was because our local authorities had to block entry into the bridge from both point of entries. This lasted almost 3 hours' long and vehicles were tailbacked, all the way to the Bayan Lepas Industrial Zone.



Updates and scans to commence tomorrow when the papers publish details on this 'hoax'.

...or maybe there really was a bomb?