Media personnel stumbled upon a gunman while entering the Tanjung Labian village this morning, located in the "red zone" where security personnel are battling armed intruders.
The group had visited the area thinking it was safe, since the police roadblock some 5km from the village was unmanned.
"Since the guards were not there and we saw villagers on motorcycles coming out, we thought it was safe and went in," said Star photographer Normiemie Duin.
Once at the village, the two vehicles were separated. Suddenly, Normiemie spotted a person clad in black and had a rifle in one hand hiding behind an oil palm tree.
"I immediately put down my camera and ducked so that he would not confuse my camera as a weapon," she said.
She noted that the gunman immediately dropped to the ground. The startled driver, Al-Hijrah journalist Senieffa Mushtadfa Albakry, quickly turned the vehicle around and sped off.
"I kept honking at my friends who were taking photographs nearby. They got the message and left the area as well," she said.
Villagers back in Tg Labian
Normiemie said she was certain that the gunman was not a police officer.
"If it was a police he would have stopped us but he ducked instead," she said.
Back at the media centre, Normiemie and Senieffa shared a hug and expressed relief that they were unscathed.
Al-Hijrah videographer Mazian Seman, who were with with them at the time, appeared nonchalant about the incident.
"Perhaps I wasn't scared because I didn't spot the gunman, my colleagues panicked. So I sang to calm them down," she joked.
The duo claimed that no shots were fired at the time, but some villagers fleeing the area said that they heard four shots this morning.
It is uncertain if the people in Tanjung Labian had returned from the evacuation centres or whether they have refused to leave and stayed there the whole time.
Tanjung Labian is adjacent to Tanjung Batu which has seen fierce fighting between security forces and armed intruders.
Nigel Aw
tugas wartawan bukan mudah
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