SUBANG JAYA, Nov 29 — The director of the Selangor Fire and Rescue Department wants the police to investigate a false allegation that one of his men was critically injured not by rioters but from being hit by a reversing fire engine.

Azmi Osman told a news conference here last night that there were witnesses who saw what really happened to Muhammad Adib Mohd Kassim, a member of the Subang Jaya Emergency Response System unit who was despatched to Sri Maha Mariamman Devasthanam temple when a riot broke out last Tuesday night.

“We made a police report on behalf of the Fire and Rescue Department Malaysia with regards to a statement made by individuals for two organisations concerning the case of fireman Muhammad Adibi who is said to have been injured because a fire engine reversed into him.

“For us who came today, it is to strictly deny this statement,” Azmi said.

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He declined to narrate what the witnesses — fellow firemen on duty at the scene that night — saw happen to 24-year-old Muhammad Adib, who is now fighting for his life at the National Heart Institute (IJN) in Kuala Lumpur.

Azmi said he didn’t want to interrupt ongoing investigations, but made the police report as a record of denial to the allegation and would leave the authorities to act on the matter.

Earlier yesterday, S. Ramaji, who heads a faction involved in a dispute over the temple’s relocation, separately told a news conference that he had video and photographic proof that Muhammad Adib’s broken ribs and other internal injuries were because a fire engine had reversed into the latter at full speed.

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A 30-second video clip has been uploaded on Facebook and widely shared through social media showing a fire truck being forced to reverse from a chaotic scene, and a man walking behind it. However, his identity is uncertain, nor could it be verified that the man had been hit by the reversing fire truck.

The federal Fire and Rescue Department director-general Datuk Mohamad Hamdan Wahid has since confirmed the man behind the reversing fire truck was not Muhammad Adib but another fireman, Mohd Hazim Rahimi, 31, who was seated next to him during a press conference at the IJN yesterday.