LAHAD DATU: No one has been shot – Sabah Police Commisioner Datuk Hamza Taib has confirmed. However, it is believed some shots were fired  on Sunday by the Sultan of Sulu’s soldiers apparently to warn members of their group not to leave.

Hamza was refuting rumours that two gunmen holed up with the Sultan of Sulu group in Kampung Tanduo were shot Monday.

“It is not true,” said Hamza, who arrived in Lahad Datu at about 11am for an update on the stand-off that has entered its third week, Star Online reported.

Since early morning, rumours were spreading of a shooting case in Kampung Tanduo but Malaysian security forces surrounding the area have denied it.

Meanwhile, the Philippine Inquirer reported that shots were  reportedly fired in Lahad Datu on Sunday afternoon, which were believed to have come from the group of Rajah Mudah Azzumudie Kiram as a warning to supporters who might want to leave the area.

The source, a senior Philippine diplomat, said the Malaysian security forces were believed not to have fired back.

Malaysian police have cordoned off  Kampung Tanduo where Azzumudie and some 180 of his followers, some 30 of them armed, have been holed up since arriving in Sabah last Feb. 12 in what they said was laying their historical right to the resource-rich land.

“The shots were probably meant for those who went with Rajah Mudah but now want to go home,” the INQUIRER source said.

The source said there were no casualties but the shots “startled the already edgy security forces.”