JITRA, Feb 16 — An armed man, who was suspected of being a criminal, was shot dead in a firefight with police at Jalan Bukit Kechil in Napoh near here this afternoon.

Kedah police chief Datuk Fisol Salleh said in the incident at 5.30pm today, a team from Division D9 of the Kedah Criminal Investigation Department (CID), who were carrying out a patrol under Op Laras, had spotted the man behaving suspiciously in a car.

He said the suspect initially refused to stop, but as his car veered to the left of the road, he stopped before firing two shots.

"Police then returned fire in self-defence and managed to kill the 57-year-old man.

"On inspection of the suspect’s car, we found two pistols and a sizeable quantity of ammunition, specifically 100 rounds of 9-millimetre (mm) bullets, 100 rounds of .38 mm. We also found 5.56 bullets used for rifles like M-16,” he said at the scene here tonight.

According to Fisol, preliminary investigations revealed that the suspect, who is a local, has four criminal records in drugs and fake firearms.

Fisol said the case is being investigated under Section 307 of the Penal Code and Section 8 of the Firearms Act 1960.

He added that the location of the shootout was a quiet road that was less travelled by commuters.

He said police would carry out further investigations to see if the suspect was involved with any crime syndicate.

According to him, the suspect’s body was sent to the Jitra Hospital for an autopsy. — Bernama