SIBU – Residents of a longhouse in Sg Asan Bayu near here were shocked when they were informed that an object found on the roof of a unit at the longhouse yesterday could possibly be debris from the Chinese Long March 5B rocket.
Bintangor fire and rescue station chief Nicholas Belulin said the object, which was 5.8cm wide and 7.62cm long, was found by the owner and family of the unit in Rumah Renyam, Sg Asan Bayu when they returned home on Saturday evening.
According to him, officers at Sibu BBP received a call about the discovery at about 8.50pm, after another call from the Lanang police station earlier.
He said a team from the Bintangor fire and rescue station was deployed to the location and arrived there at 10.38pm after travelling 37km.
“They found a suspicious object that had fallen onto the roof of the longhouse, penetrating it and getting stuck in the wooden beams of the house. There was a tear in the roof.
“The object was taken by police teams from the Sibu police headquarters and Lanang police station for further investigation,” he said in a statement today.
He said that according to the owner, the object may have been there for 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.
Meanwhile, the owner stated in a police report at the Sg Merah police station on Saturday evening that his neighbour had said he heard a loud bang from the roof of his room on the night of July 30.
Sibu district police chief Zulkipli Suhaili said the report on the object’s discovery was received late yesterday, and that the object will be sent to the Chemistry Department and Atomic Energy Licensing Board branch in Kuching for confirmation.
On July 31, the Malaysian Space Agency confirmed that the bright objects seen streaking across the night sky around Sarawak on July 30 were debris from the Chinese Long March 5B rocket.
Most of the debris were reported to have fallen in the Sulu Sea. – Bernama, August 14, 2022
