GEORGE TOWN, Aug 19 — An early morning police ambush at a service apartment in Sungai Nibong here turned into a shootout which left five men, believed to be 04 gang members, dead.

In the 4.30am incident, a police team from the Serious Crimes Division (D9) broke down the door of a unit on the 11th floor after their knocks went unanswered.

Upon entering the apartment, the team heard gunshots coming from inside and this sparked a 30-minute shootout between the police and the apartment occupants, resulting in the deaths of all five men inside, who were in their 20s and 30s.

The men were believed to be members of the notorious Si Lian Kia (04) gang. They were also believed to be involved in the recent spate of shootings in the state.

The police also recovered three pistols and a few rounds of ammunition in the unit and are now still inspecting the scene.

It is learnt that the police have been monitoring the apartment over the past four months and had acted today based on public information that gunshots were heard within the unit.

On inspection at the scene, two suspects — J. Gohinath, 31, and R. Ramesh, 27 — were found in the master bedroom, one — A.Vinuvt, 23 — in the second room and two — M. Suresh, 25, and M. Gobinath, 21 – were found in the third room.

All except M. Gobinath and Vinuvt had previous criminal records. Ramesh was also on the police wanted list.

Inspector-General of Police Tan Sri Khalid Abu Bakar is expected to hold a press conference on this issue here later this afternoon.

There has been a recent spate of shooting incidents in the state with the latest being three shootings within two days during the Hari Raya holidays.

The three separate shootings, one of which was fatal, bring the total number of shooting incidents in the state to 19 cases this year.

On August 9, a bungalow in Jalan Utama was shot at 10 times by an unidentified gunman, shattering a window but nobody was injured.

The house owner had earlier received a note demanding that he deposit an undisclosed sum of money into a bank account. The shooting was believed to be a warning to him.

At about 11.15am the same day, a 37-year-old former convicted drug dealer, K.Veerappan, was shot to death in his car at a traffic light junction in Anson Road.

On August 10 at around midnight, 43-year-old night club bouncer Chong Peng Meng was shot at seven times outside a night club in Datuk Keramat. He received injuries on his thigh.

Chong is believed to be a former 04 gang leader.