KUALA LUMPUR – Police and rangers from the Wildlife and National Parks Department (Perhilitan) have been put on high alert following the supposed sighting of a tiger in Kemensah Heights, Hulu Selangor.
Ampang Jaya district police chief Mohamad Farouk Eshak said checks conducted around the location of the supposed sighting from midnight last night failed to spot the wildcat, which was said to be last seen near a lamp post at Jalan Tropika there.
He said rangers from Selangor Perhilitan who arrived at the location earlier this evening to assist police also failed to track the animal. They are still on-site attempting to locate the wild animal.
“Ampang police have since increased patrolling around the affected areas to ensure the safety of residents there.
“The National Zoo had also confirmed that none of their tigers had escaped from captivity from within the zoo,” he said in a statement today.
Farouk said police were prompted into action after being alerted to a viral message circulated via WhatsApp that claimed a tiger had been spotted in the neighbourhood last night.
He said investigations revealed that a security guard hired on a temporary basis at the neighbourhood was the one who saw the animal lurking in the area, and that police have yet to locate the guard.
“The security guard who claimed to have seen the tiger is a foreign national and was temporarily hired in the neighbourhood.
“There is no additional information on this security guard whom we have not been able to locate until now,” he said.
Farouk said no police report has been lodged over the supposed sighting so far.
He urged actual witnesses of the incident to come forward and assist with investigations.
“The public is also reminded to not simply share unverified information,” he said.
In the viral voice message, a man claimed that a tiger was spotted nearby in their neighbourhood last night, while also relating the difficulties he faced in trying to establish contact with relevant authorities.
The man had urged his neighbours to stay indoors to avoid coming across the wild animal. He signed off at the end of the audio note as “chairman Fadzil”.
Checks showed that the head of the Joint Kemensah Residence Association is Fadzil Abdullah. However, calls to him went unanswered.
Meanwhile, Perhilitan director-general Datuk Abdul Kadir Abu Hashim confirmed that his officers are still actively scouring the area and ascertaining the veracity of the mammal’s sighting.
“Perhilitan is investigating the public claim of the presence of a tiger at the site,” he told Getaran, the Malay-language sister portal of The Vibes. – The Vibes, May 20, 2022
