KUALA TERENGGANU (THE STAR/ASIA NEWS NETWORK) - A 29-year-old man was about to be wed when his in-laws learnt that he was already married.

When the bride-to-be's brother, 34, confronted him, the groom took out a knife and stabbed the other man to death.

The bride-to-be and other members of the family apparently witnessed the stabbing at the car park of the State Religious Department.

The family had come from Kelantan to verify that her husband-to-be was a bachelor as he had claimed.

However, they were shocked to learn that the man was already married - department records showed that he had wed a 24-year-old woman six years ago.

Both the man and the victim, Mr Mohd Sukri Hussin, started to argue in the car park and as it grew more heated, the suspect allegedly pulled out a knife and killed him.

Police arrived to find the body of Mr Mohd Sukri, an employee of the Kelantan Road Transport Department, in a pool of blood with six stab wounds to the neck and chest.

State CID chief Asst Comm Wan Abd Aziz Wan Hamzah said police were hunting for the man, who was from Kampung Baloh Manir.

He added that the weapon used was a 15cm-long knife.

"We also found some newspapers believed to have been used to conceal the knife. We believe the suspect had come prepared," he told reporters after visiting the crime scene on Sunday (Oct 16).

ACP Wan Abd Aziz said the suspect fled the scene with a friend in a car and had threatened a security guard with the knife after the latter closed the car park gate when he heard screams.

The guard said he thought that the commotion was over a car theft or an abduction.

"I rushed to close the gate. All of a sudden, a man came out of the car and pointed the knife at me, telling me to back away. Then he opened the gate," the guard told police.

The police also urged the public to stop sharing a photo of the previous owner of the car, a teacher, on social media.

The man was not a suspect in the case as he had already sold the vehicle before the incident, ACP Wan Abd Aziz said.