Sungai Pari Flats a known danger zone, say residents after schoolgirls' deaths

IPOH - Residents consider the empty Sungai Pari Flats residential building in Buntong, the location where two 14-year-old schoolgirls were found dead on Friday, to be a dangerous area.

Roshan Singh, 46, said the building, abandoned for nearly 15 years, was not only structurally unsafe but had also once been a haunt for drug addicts.

Throughout his time living in the area, he had never seen members of the public or students using the building as a gathering spot or a place to skip school.

“As far as I know, no students ever came to hang out here because this place is dangerous and not an area for people to enter.

“We're quite puzzled how they could have gotten into the area, to the point of making it up to the upper floors of the building," he said when met by Sinar.

Roshan said an incident like this had never happened before and it came as a shock to local residents.

"In the past, if there were any cases, they only involved drug addicts. When there's a case involving students like this, of course we're worried about the level of safety," he said.

Sinar had earlier reported that two schoolgirls were found dead in the area of the empty residential building near Buntong, in an incident that occurred at around 4.50pm on Friday.

Both victims, who were also close friends, are believed to have attended the same school in Ipoh and were in the afternoon session.

Another resident, Balaguru, 54, said the building's open condition made it easy for outsiders to enter the area.

He therefore suggested that access to the building be fully closed off, including sealing the stairwell, to prevent trespassing and to stop such unwanted incidents from happening again.

"We were informed that this area has been taken over by a developer for development purposes, but until now nothing has happened yet.

"Only area cleanup has been done – large trees were cut down and the undergrowth was also cleared," he said.

Sungai Pari Flats, known by the nicknames “Sungai Pari Tower” or “Tingkat 15” (15 Storeys), was once the tallest building in Northern Malaya and an iconic symbol of the city of Ipoh due to its bowl-shaped roof design.

The public housing project, built in 1963, was gradually vacated starting in 2012 due to concerns over the building's structural integrity.