TREAT MENTALLY ILL PEOPLE URGENTLY, SAYS ACTIVIST

KUALA LUMPUR, July 8 (Bernama) -- Mentally ill people should be given
treatment urgently as they could cause untold havoc and threaten innocent
people, said Lee Lam Thye, a member of the Mental Health Promotion
Advisory Council.

Many of them were "in our midst and they are walking time bombs", he said in
a statement Friday.

Lee referred to Thursday's incident in Muar, Johor (a southern state in
peninsular Malaysia), where a man suffering from a serious mental disorder broke
into a kindergarten in Taman Cemerlang, Sungai Abong, armed with a hammer and a
machete and held 30 children and four teachers hostage.

The police freed the children and teachers after storming the kindergarten
and shot the man in the head when he attacked them with a fire extinguisher. The
man succumbed to his injuries at Sultanah Fatimah Specialist Hospital in Muar.

Lee called on the operators of kindergartens, nurseries and childcare
centres to give priority to safety of the children under their care.

"The tragedy has once again highlighted the deteriorating state of mental
health among Malaysians, and this is an issue that needs to be addressed
urgently not only by the government but the entire community," he said.

-- BERNAMA