KUCHING: Six persons, including a teenager, were arrested on suspicion of attempted house breaking and intimidation on Thursday night thanks to a group of concerned residents.

The drama began at Jalan Semaba around 7.15pm when a resident at Taman Kim Lee spotted an unknown man in the compound of his neighbour’s unoccupied house and immediately shouted at him.

The suspect, who was wearing a red jacket, took off into secondary jungle nearby as the resident and several other neighbours went after him.

The group patrolled the surrounding area for over an hour but failed to locate the suspect, who had apparently escaped and were about to call it quits when a Perodua Rusa van with three men inside drove up to them.

The trio, who were armed with a wooden club, angrily approached the residents and threatened to harm them for falsely accusing the suspect, who happened to be their friend, of attempted house breaking.

The residents, however, refused to be intimidated and fought back, sending the trio fleeing to their house, which turned out to be in the same housing area.

Residents then alerted the police and Mobile Patrol Vehicles (MPVs) arrived at the scene to arrest the three men, aged between 26 and 40, at around 8.30pm.

A check of the Rusa van found that it had been fitted with false registration plates and the trio were sent to the lock-up pending further investigation.

Following the incident, the residents left the Simpang Tiga police station after lodging a report and headed to a coffee shop at Jalan Semaba around 1.45am where they noticed the original suspect, who was still wearing his red jacket, sitting not far away with two other men and a woman.

Realising he had been spotted, the suspect and his friends fled in a Kancil with the residents in hot pursuit.

The chase ended at Kg Haji Baki when the residents blocked off the Kancil and apprehended the suspect along with one of his male friends.

The other friend and the girl fled the scene on foot.

MPVs went to the scene and arrested the duo, who are both in their 20s, and brought them to the police station for questioning.

Based on information gathered, patrol officers went back to Kg Haji Baki and arrested a 17-year-old boy who was one of the two who fled earlier.

The girl has yet to be found.

All three were then sent to the lock-up pending further investigation.