SEREMBAN, May 15 — The police said today they are still uncertain if the violent robbery of two nuns at a church here yesterday was racially or religiously motivated, due to the lack of eyewitnesses and a malfunctioning closed-circuit television (CCTV).

For now, the authorities are treating the incident as a robbery case as money was taken during the melee early yesterday morning.

A police officer, who did not wish to be named, told The Malay Mail Online at the scene of the incident this afternoon that the CCTV at the main entrance of the Church of Visitation in Seremban had not been working for a couple of days due to rain.

“We don’t know what’s the motive,” he said, when asked if the attack — which has left one nun in critical condition — was a hate crime.

“No eyewitnesses. CCTV out,” the policeman said, before adding that some cash was taken from the nuns’ handbags.

He also said that the two nuns were jogging around the church when the attack happened.

The assault against two elderly nuns at 6am yesterday at the main entrance of the Catholic church had left one of them in critical condition and the other in shock.

News reports say that Julianna Lim Nyo Nya, 69, is in critical condition while Marie-Rose Teng, 79, is conscious. Both are warded at the Seremban Hospital.

News portal The Malaysian Insider reported today an unidentified nun as saying that Lim and Teng were beaten with helmets before they were robbed.

Shortly before yesterday’s incident, Muslim speakers at a forum at Universiti Teknologi Mara (UiTM) had denounced Christianity, saying that Jesus Christ was merely a human slave to Allah and that the gospels in the New Testament were fake.

Hate speech and hate crime are not officially gazetted in Malaysian law.

Another police officer also said Negri Sembilan police chief Datuk Osman Salleh will hold a press conference later today due to the high-profile nature of the case.

This morning, forensic police were seen examining the grounds at the Church of Visitation, a large church building with Gothic architecture. The church is the oldest in the Kuala Lumpur Archdiocese since it was founded in 1848.

Myanmar church worker Saw Doh said he came upon the two nuns sprawled in front of the main entrance of the church shortly after 6am, by which time many people were already gathered there.

“One of the nuns was hurt in the head,” he said.

He also said that the church — which has services in English, Bahasa Malaysia, Mandarin and Tamil — is opened every day at 5.30am.

Father Gregory Chan, assistant parish priest of the Church of Visitation, declined to comment on the incident when approached by The Malay Mail Online at the church office.

* A previous edition of the story erroneously reported one of the victim's name as Mary-Rose Teng. It has since been corrected.