SEBERANG PERAI, Sept 27 — Two Vietnamese men, suspected of being members of a syndicate behind a spate of factory and office thefts in Penang and Kedah, were shot dead by police early this morning

In the 3.20am incident, a team from D4 Division, Criminal Investigation Department of the Penang Police Headquarters, was patrolling the area when they came across a suspicious Proton Waja car parked outside a factory in Bukit Panchor.

The officers noticed two men exiting the factory in a suspicious manner and ordered them to stop for an inspection.

"The suspects were armed with machetes and instead of heeding the order to stop, they lunged at the policemen which prompted the policemen to fire four shots in self defence,” Penang police chief Datuk Hamzah Ahmad said in a press conference at the South Seberang Perai District police headquarters later this morning.

Both men, aged 38 and 39 years old, were killed on the spot.

"We have opened investigation papers under Section 307 of the Penal Code for attempted murder,” he said.

Hamzah said the two Vietnamese who were killed were in Malaysia on valid tourist passes, adding that investigations showed they both entered and exited the country frequently over the past few years.

He said both also have criminal records for various offences, including drugs.

"Upon further investigation, two machetes, various tools suspected to be used in factory and house break-ins were recovered,” he said.

He said the two suspects were believed to have targeted factories and offices with large-sized safes that stored valuable assets for their operations, and suspected they were behind six break-in cases in Penang and five in Kedah with losses amounting to RM317,700.

"We can consider them as experts in breaking into factories and officers as they had targeted large premises,” he said, adding that this could be due to the possible lucrative returns of such targets.

Hamzah does not rule out the possibility of the involvement of insiders who may have acted as masterminds of the syndicate.

"We are still investigating this further,” he said.

He said the police also believed that there may be other Vietnamese individuals linked to the syndicate who are still at large.

"We are undertaking all efforts to track them down,” he said.

The bodies of the two Vietnamese men have been sent to the Forensic Department of Seberang Jaya Hospital for a post-mortem.