Rifle Range, which was used by the military and the police as a shooting range during the
British colonial era, was also the site where victims of the
Imperial Japanese Army's
Sook Ching massacres were buried. During
World War II, when
Penang was under
Japanese occupation, thousands of
ethnic Chinese were brutally executed by the Japanese authorities and were buried in mass graves throughout Penang, including at Rifle Range. The remains of the victims would only be uncovered in the 1960s when the construction of the Rifle Range flats was underway. In 1964, the
Malaysian federal government approved a pilot project to construct
prefabricated high-rise housing at Rifle Range. Six blocks of 17-storey flats and three blocks of 18-storey flats, which cumulatively contain 3,699 residential units and 66 shop lots, were to be assembled on-site using prefabricated concrete blocks. The nine blocks were constructed by the Housing Trust Federation and were complete by 1969. The Rifle Range flats became the
tallest buildings in George Town until the completion of
Sunrise Tower in 1977. All nine structures were eventually acquired by the
Penang state government from the federal government in 1972. == Transportation ==