KUALA LUMPUR, March 31 — Former army private Adam Jaafar, or better known as "Private Adam” who ran amok in the Chow Kit area here in 1987, has died.

According to media reports, Adam died at Hospital Pulau Pinang in Georgetown, Penang, yesterday. He was 57.

The Penang native will be buried at Datuk Keramat in the state capital.

In 1987, then a 23-year-old army private, Adam rode into the Chow Kit suburb on a motorcycle with an M16 assault rifle he had stolen from his military base in Ipoh, Perak.

He launched into a shooting spree in the suburb, killing one person and injuring several others.

Adam was charged over the attack but was found to be mentally unsound and placed in psychiatric care.

The incident spawned various conspiracy theories but in a book thirty years after the incident, Adam put his episode down to early childhood trauma and subsequent ragging by his seniors in the army.