GEORGE TOWN: The police have confirmed that an individual who used a firearm to apprehend a man as depicted in a viral video is a policeman.

Timur Laut district police chief ACP Razlam Ab Hamid said the individual was a personnel of the Penang contingent police headquarters Criminal Investigations Department (CID) and that the incident occurred in the Relau area around 5.45 pm last Wednesday.

The policeman in question was apprehending a local man believed to be involved in a case of obstructing and using criminal force against a civil servant.

“On Aug 1, at 12.30 pm, the police found a 53-second video clip uploaded on X depicting an individual who identified himself as a policeman apprehending another individual using a firearm.

“The police confirm that the individual in the video is actually a policeman from the Penang contingent police headquarters CID and that the suspect had acted aggressively and tried to escape, almost hitting a police personnel at the location, but was apprehended,” he said in a statement today.

Further inspections revealed that the suspect had a plastic pack containing 10.35 grams (g) of heroin, he added.

Razlam also informed that the same suspect had rammed and injured another police personnel while trying to evade arrest the day before, adding that the suspect has been remanded for four days from yesterday till Sunday to facilitate investigations under Section 186 and 353 of the Penal Code and Section 39a (2) of the Dangerous Drugs Act 1952.