PHOTO ILLUSTRATION: MIKE M DIZON

Besides the standard attire of a beige T-shirt, brown drawstring pants and black rubber slippers which all detainees wear, he was also wearing a greenish-grey baju kurung, a long-sleeved, hip-length shirt.

The police said he was last seen in the baju kurung.

No explanation was given for why he had two sets of clothes on him, although detainees at the Whitley Road Detention Centre are allowed to change into civilian clothes when their families visit to 'facilitate interaction', the police said.

The police's director of operations, Assistant Commissioner Wong Hong Kuan, said this information was being released because the police now needed the public's help in looking out for these items, which the fugitive may have discarded.

Asked why this was being made public only one week after Mas Selamat's escape, he said it was because the authorities needed to ascertain what Mas Selamat had with him when he fled.

VIDEO Mas Selamat was last seen wearing this... (4:55)

Also, they did not want the public to have a 'fixation' with a particular set of clothes since Mas Selamat could have already changed out of them.

'We believe he had all these items with him...but by now, he'd be able to change into any attire,' he said.

Various sightings of the wanted man by the public so far have also had him bare-bodied or wearing a T-shirt.

Since the breakout, police have received more than 600 calls to 999 and over 170 e-mail messages about the case.

AC Wong also reiterated the police's call for the public to report sightings and minor cases of theft, especially of clothes, money or food.

AC Wong, noting that people were worried about getting into trouble for reporting an apparent lead that turns out to be a dud, said: 'As long as the reports were made in good faith, nothing will happen to the person. Nothing is too minor for us to follow up on.'

The police still believe Mas Selamat is in Singapore.

The next focus of police operations will be on checking forests fringing private housing estates because Mas Selamat could be hiding in these woods, waiting for a chance to steal clothes, money, food or transportation.

Police are also not letting up in combing other forested or urban areas.

On Monday night, they cordoned off the jungle along Woodlands Road and combed it for at least five hours before standing down, still without their man.

A man had been seen running away from an enforcement officer and into the area, but he was not in clothes matching Mas Selamat's last-seen attire, and neither was his limp 'definitive', said AC Wong.

Yesterday morning, at about 7, another group of officers surrounded the Bukit Timah Nature Reserve, about 10 minutes' drive from the Woodlands Road area.

Police Coast Guard boats also patrolled the seas off Singapore, including islands such as Pulau Ubin and Pulau Tekong.

benjamin@sph.com.sg

joolin@sph.com.sg

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