SIBU: A contractor at Salim Road here told the police yesterday that someone had extorted him through telephone calls followed by arson.
The 57-year-old man surnamed Wong said he heard two explosions outside his house recently, but ignored it as he thought someone was playing with firecrackers.
When he woke up at 6.30am the next day, he found burnt papers at his car porch.
He told the police that a man had called to extort him prior to the suspected arson.
In a separate case, a postman from Kampung Hilir here suffered a fractured right thigh after the company van he was driving crashed into a lamp post following a flat tyre.
The incident at 9.30am yesterday occurred when the 35-year-old man was heading from town to Kampung Nangka.
It was said that the front tyre of the vehicle had burst, causing the man to lose control over the vehicle which then hit a lamp post.
The front portion of the van was badly damaged.
Civil Defence Department personnel sent the injured driver to Sibu Hospital at 10.30am.