Secondary school students among 14 held for drunken antics

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UNHEALTHY INDULGENCE: Sub-inspector Simon Low of the Kuching district police headquarters questioning a girl after rounding up the group.

KUCHING: Eight students from a secondary school in Samarahan were among a group of 14 detained by police on Thursday following public complaints over their drunken antics at the Song Kheng Hai hawker centre.

Acting on information received, a team led by sub-inspector Simon Low found the group, aged between 14 and 27, congregating at the wooden stands overlooking a rugby field around 1.30pm while indulging in cheap liquor and cigarettes.

Among the students rounded up were four 15-year-olds, including two girls, who had just sat for a Penilaian Menengah Rendah (PMR) examination paper earlier in the morning.

A number of them, who were still clad in their school uniforms, were clearly inebriated from their drinking session, with three empty bottles of cheap liquor found in their possession.

According to the students, they caught a bus from Samarahan to Kuching immediately after the completion of their examination paper, and had met up with a group of older youths at the hawker centre.

Following their drinking session, they had planned to spend the rest of the day loitering at the Kuching Waterfront before making their way back to Samarahan later the same afternoon.

Meanwhile, a parking lot attendant claimed that apart from drinking and smoking, he also saw the six girls in the group kissing and hugging the boys, apparently oblivious to the fact their behaviour was in full public view.

The group was taken to district police headquarters for documentation purposes, with the students later being released into the custody of their families.