A crisis and disaster management exercise at the KL Sentral Station left hundreds of people wondering what was going on as they were ushered off to an assembly point.

Unconcerned crowd: A policeman ushering the crowd out of the station.

The “bomb threat” simulation known as ‘Ex Sentral’ was held to assess the capability of KL Sentral, government agencies and the private sector to simultaneously handle any crisis such as bomb explosion or earthquake.

The exercise involved collaboration from KL Sentral, Keretapi Tanah Melayu Bhd (KTMB), Express Railway Link (ERL), RapidKL, taxi drivers, business traders and the public from 11am to 1pm on June 26.

When the emergency announcement was made and everyone was asked to evacuate the station, most people kept on with their business until officials came to usher them out of the KL Sentral building.

Some were seen still queuing to get money from the automated teller machines (ATM) while others were trying to buy rail tickets.

It took about 20 minutes to get people out of the building and into the assembly point outside the station.

As part of the exercise, bomb squad, K9 unit, police officers and ambulance were sent to the scene.

Tracker: A bomb squad robot scouting for the bomb ‘threat’.

Nurul Najwa Abd Rahman, 18 from Jinjang, said the simulation exercise was useful. “I think it is good to be prepared so that people would know what to do when an emergency occurs,” she said.

The exercise caught Mohd Effendy Zainal, 27 from Ampang, by surprise.

“I suppose it is good to always be prepared especially for a place like this where there are many people coming in and out every day,” said Effendy.

Over at Bangsar station, where commuters were asked to stop because of the simulation exercise, StarMetro found that many regular LRT users were puzzled with the temporary arrangement.

Rail users were asked to take the bus as an alternative mode to get to KL Sentral.

LRT tickets to KL Sentral were also not sold during the simulation exercise and people were advised to take the bus instead.

Police officers and LRT personnel helped to usher users to the bus stop and explained the situation at hand.

StarMetro spoke to several LRT users, who had to make a transit at Bangsar station.

Pricilla Ng, 19 from KL was not aware of the exercise when she got on the train.

“When I arrived in Bangsar, they asked me to take the bus to KL Sentral. I am a bit clueless on what is going on today,” said Ng.

Aliah Md Yusuf, 21, from Kerinchi, found the situation to be troublesome.

“They did not sell tickets to KL Sentral and I was asked to take the bus from Bangsar.

“I was not aware of the situation and only came to know, when I wanted to take the LRT at the Universiti station,” she said.

Aliah said more thought should have been put into the matter as it posed a hassle to people.

For Siti Nur Aishah Samin, 23, a more suitable time could have been picked for the exercise.

“They picked lunch hour to do it which I think is a bad time considering there are a lot more people.

“I only came to know about the exercise, when I wanted to buy a ticket,” said Siti.

Semasa Sentral Sdn Bhd chief operation officer Mohd Roslan Shariff said that this was the first year they conducted a simulation during operating hours.

“This simulation is crucial because it integrates the safety procedures and emergency actions to be taken during an incident by all parties operating at KL Sentral.

“We would like to thank the public for cooperating with the exercise,” said Roslan.

Roslan said that KL Sentral receives more than 100,000 passengers daily.

Article source:

TheStar News

Popularity: 27% [?]