Md Elliza, a witness for the public inquest into Muhammad Adib Mohd Kassim’s death at Shah Alam Court Complex, February 11, 2019. — Picture by Miera Zulyana

KUALA LUMPUR, Feb 11 — The first two witnesses in the inquest into the death of fireman Muhammad Adib Mohd Kassim described a scene chaos and panic on the night he was allegedly attacked, the Coroner’s Court was told today.

Recalling the events on the night of November 27, 2018, fire engine driver Md Eliza Mohd Noor, who was driving the vehicle and responding to a distress call of a burning vehicle near the Seafield Sri Maha Mariamman Temple, said they were attacked as soon as they arrived on site.

“I saw a lot of people at the site and the crowd was coming towards the fire engine. I could hear them shouting at us not to put out the fire while gesturing for us to move away.

“At this time I saw a man holding a white pole, from behind the crowd, running towards the fire engine and then hitting the windscreen of the fire engine.

“After that, hard objects such as helmets and bricks and other unidentified objects were thrown at the windscreen,” he said.

Eliza was answering a question from court coordinating officer Hamdan Hamzah who had asked him to explain what happened the night Mohd Adib was allegedly attacked.

Following the attack on the fire engine, Eliza said he was fearful and reacted by reversing his fire engine.

“It was a very frightening situation. I feared that the hard objects thrown would come through the windscreen,” he said.

Eliza explain that he was with a seven-man team including himself in the fire engine while an Emergency Rescue Services (EMRS) vehicle ferrying Mohd Adib and another fireman was right behind them.

Eliza also informed the court that while his fire engine was under attack, he witnessed several individuals making their way on the side of the fire engine heading towards the EMRS van behind him, but he did not know their motives.

Earlier in the day, IPD Subang Jaya Traffic chief ASP Mohd Nasir Rahman testified in court said he witnessed the fire engine had tried to get away from a mob of people, believed to be of Indian descent.

“I saw the vehicle reversed, then moved forward, then reversed again before disappearing from my sight,” he said.

He also said he witnessed hard objects being thrown at the fire engine’s windshield.

However, Mohd Nasir, who stated that he was 80 to 100 metres away from the location of the incident, said he was uncertain whether any fire fighters had exited the vehicle and were subsequently beaten up by the mob.

He explained that he tried to approach the besieged fire engine, but was unable to do so.

“My officers and I tried to enter the area but failed as we do not have enough officers and doing so could threaten our safety,” he said.