In this still from a now infamous video taken during the London riots, a bleeding man is approached by what appear to be Good Samaritans, only to have them rob him. Mohd Asyraf Haziq was riding his bicycle to buy food for Iftar, the evening meal Muslims eat to break their fast during the Islamic month of Ramadan.
YouTubeA bleeding young man who was the subject of a shocking video that has come to embody the blatant lawlessness of the riots sweeping the U.K. and that has even elicited the outrage of Prime Minister David Cameron has been identified as Mohd Asyraf Haziq, a 20-year-old student from Malaysia.
Haziq, who is studying at Kaplan International College London on a Malaysian government scholarship, was riding his bicycle with a friend around 7:30 p.m. Monday in the city's East Barking neighbourhood, on his way to buy food for Iftar, the evening meal Muslims eat to break their fast during the Islamic month of Ramadan.
The High Commission of Malaysia in London says Haziq encountered a group of rioters, which attacked him, kicking and punching him in the face before stealing his bike.
The now infamous video of Haziq sitting on the side of the road bleeding profusely from the head picks up just after he was attacked. The student can be seen being approached by a group of men who appear, at least initially, to want to help him.
As one man in a tracksuit helps Haziq to his feet and begins leading him away from the crowd, another man wearing a baseball cap approaches and begins rummaging through the student's backpack. Another man on a bicycle arrives and also reaches into Haziq's bag, evidently searching for valuables. Before long, the man in the tracksuit who originally appeared to help the dazed Haziq, also has a look through the bag.
The video then shows the man in the baseball cap yank something out of Haziq's bag — now revealed to be the student's Sony PSP game console — and quickly take off down the street, casually tossing what appears to be packaging of some kind on the ground.
"The whole thing is shocking," Wan Rosli Wan Othman, a spokesman for the Malaysian High Commission, told the Toronto Star. "He doesn't remember anything about the punch or strike that did it, but he does remember a few teenagers coming to help him and lifting him to his feet and then robbing him in broad daylight."
Wan Othman said Haziq suffered a broken jaw and is scheduled to undergo surgery Wednesday.
"As far as we know, he is in stable condition," he added, noting that the student's parents are also en route to England to support their son.
"I was initially very worried but I'm glad that he is all right. However, I am not able to talk to him because of his injuries," Maznah Abu Mansor, Haziq's mother, told the Malaysian newspaper The Star Wednesday. She said the government agency sponsoring her son's scholarship should consider bringing home other students.
Abdul Hamid, the Barking resident who filmed the brazen robbery from his flat, told The Telegraph he felt "sickened" to see Haziq lying on the road in such a helpless state.
"But then for these people to come along when he was in that state and mug him was ridiculous," he said. "I wanted to go down and help but I was terrified that I would get beaten up as well. There were about 50 or more of them."
Hamid's video has garnered nearly half a million views since it was posted to YouTube Monday, and has elicited outrage on Internet forums, in the media, and from Britain's political elite.
Prime Minister David Cameron referenced the incident Wednesday in a statement discussing the societal ills plaguing his country.
"There are pockets of our society that are not just broken but frankly sick," Cameron told reporters. "When we see children as young as 12 and 13 looting and laughing, when we see the disgusting sight of an injured young man with people pretending to help him while they are robbing him, it is clear that there are things that are badly wrong with our society."
The Metropolitan Police say they are investigating.
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