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The New Paper
Saturday, Jun 30, 2012

She was walking towards her car parked on the fourth floor of a shopping mall in Kuala Lumpur on Friday night when she noticed a man standing near the lift.

Said Miss Noorhusna Aisyah Abdul Malek, 24, who had just finished her workout in a gym: "He had a backpack. I walked past him thinking he was just another shopper whe nhe grabbed me from behind.

"He held a Rambo knife to my neck and pushed me to the ground.

He demanded my mobile phone and wallet, and warned me not to scream. But I screamed my lungs out."

She said the man slashed her on the head when she refused to stop screaming and hand over her valuables.

Miss Noorhusna, a technical executive at a private company, was recounting the ordeal she faced at the Mid Valley Megamall last week.

This is the third attack involving women in shopping complex carparks in Kuala Lumpur in the past month.

Miss Noorhusna told The New Straits Times: "I put up a fight, and when I tried to push him away, he stabbed me in the chest. Luckily, I held on to the blade andthewoundwas not deep."

She said at that point she bit his hands. For this, the assailant kicked her repeatedly and stepped on her right shoulder while she was on the ground.

She said: "He was wearing heavy boots. The pain was unbearable. I had no choice but to hand over my wallet."

Miss Noorhusna added: "I was angry. I thought the place was safe and never expected to be mugged in such a way."

The robber fled with her mobile phone and wallet, containing RM200(S$80). The attack lasted several minutes and left her bleeding from the head and chest.

Miss Noorhusna, from Pahang, said that after the attack, her only thought was to return to her rented home.

She told The New Straits Times: "I went to my car, took off my blood-soaked tudung and was about to drive away when I saw a couple walking towards their car. I cried out for help.

"The couple came to my aid. They called an ambulance before contacting the mall's security department."

Why did she take on the robber? She told The New Straits Times that she acted on "instinct".

She said: "Even the police asked me that. I was just so angry. I felt violated."

She said she was even more angry after viewing the closed-circuit television camera recording, which showed the robber calmly walking down the ramp before re-entering the mall on the second floor.

Mall's security officers
She also expressed her disappointment with the mall's security officers, who, she claimed, took more than 20 minutes to show up after the attack.

Said Miss Noorhusna: "This accident should be a lesson to other women not to take security for granted, even in crowded places."

She said she hoped that her experience will make other women realise that they cannot be complacent about security.

"It can happen to any one of us, any time, anywhere."

Meanwhile, Mid Valley Megamall assistant public relations manager Stephanie Tan said they had surrendered CCTV recordings of the incident to the police.

An earlier incident involving another woman happened late last month when an Internet marketeer was abducted by two menat the Curve in Petaling Jaya.

She escaped by jumping out of her car, which was being driven away by one of the men.

A week later, at the outdoor carpark of the One Utama shopping complex in Petaling Jaya, a woman was confronted by a parang-wielding robber who forced her into her car and drove to a nearby automated teller machine.

The woman was forced to withdraw an undisclosed amount of cash before she was sent back to the carpark.

Following these incidents, police have set up a task force to hunt down the culprits. It is not known whether any arrests have been made.