This will apply to stations “at risk of threats”, though members of the public who wished to lodge police reports would still be able to do so at these stations.

Home minister Saifuddin Nasution Ismail said there was a need to balance the needs of the community and the safety of policemen on duty, Bernama reported.

“Police stations are the place for the people to file complaints but, at the same time, they are also potential targets. So we need to balance between these two factors.

“In the Ulu Tiram incident, the attack occurred while personnel were handling two people (who were there to file a complaint),” Bernama quoted him as telling the Dewan Rakyat.

The minister added that the police force had tightened its SOPs at all police stations, including regular patrols within their premises, to prevent similar incidents.

Saifuddin was responding to Richard Riot (GPS-Serian), who asked about the ministry’s measures to tighten security at police stations across the country after the Ulu Tiram attack.

In the lone wolf attack on May 17, a 21-year-old man stormed into the Ulu Tiram police station in Johor and killed two constables, Ahmad Azza Fahmi Azhar, 22, and Syafiq Ahmad Said, 24. Another policeman was injured.

The assailant was shot and killed at the scene. His family members have been charged with inciting terrorism by spreading the Islamic State militant group’s ideology.