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Villagers smoked as petrol leaked from smashed van

The ordeal for Ng Kam-chu began when her son George Cheung's van rolled over on a bumpy forest road near the Baluran Nature Reserve on the eastern tip of Java as they were travelling to visit relatives.

Mr Cheung, his two aunts and nephew pulled themselves out of the van but Ms Ng was knocked unconscious and bleeding from head wounds.

Desperate attempts to pull her out of the van, which was leaking petrol, turned into a spectacle when about 50 villagers surrounded them but offered no help.

'They folded their arms and watched. Some started to smoke and were dropping ashes on the ground near the van, which was leaking a lot of gasoline,' Mr Cheung said. 'Finally I screamed: 'Allah has mercy and he is watching you in heaven'. Only then did a few help to push up the car and pull my mother out.' Mr Cheung said more than 20 cars drove past. 'I saw one coming and I threw myself on the road in front of it. I told the driver he would have to run over me if he wanted to get away. We convinced him to take us to a clinic.' Mr Cheung said the only people who went out of their way to help were Cathay Pacific managers, who made in-flight medical arrangements and secured an ambulance to carry Ms Ng to Queen Elizabeth Hospital.

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