A policeman was found dead, shot at close range and stabbed with a sharp object, at the Pinggiran Subang Jaya police station in Selangor early today, said Selangor Chief Police Officer Datuk Mazlan Mansor.

He identified the policeman as Lance Corporal Valentino anak Mesa, 29, who was from Sarawak.

Mazlan said Valentino was found lying prone at the enquiry counter of the police station, where he had been on duty, by members of a patrol unit that had returned to the station at 3.25 am. The lights had been switched off, he added.

“When the patrol unit members went to the enquiry counter, they saw Valentino lying prone there. When they switched on the lights, they found that he was bleeding from the head,” he said to reporters at the police station.

Valentino’s pistol was missing, he said, adding that the killer or killers could have taken it.

Mazlan said that a member of the public said he heard what sounded like an explosion at 2.40 am but thought it could have been a fire-cracker set off for National Day.

He said the police station did not have closed circuit television cameras and the police were trying to find out whether any houses nearby had the cameras.

He also said that Valentino had served the force for seven years. He was married and had no children.

-- BERNAMA