GROOM CHEATS dEATH AFTER HE GETS SHOT iN FRONT OF FiANCEE
Miracle as mugger’s bullet misses Tarek’s heart
A SCOT gunned down in the Philippines just hours before his wedding survived by a miracle when the bullet just missed his heart.
Callous muggers shot groom-to-be Tarek Nagger in the street and stole his wallet, which contained just £10.
His fiancee Angie and best man Chris McLaughlin saw the horrific attack.
Tarek, 44, had to be taken to hospital by rickshaw after an ambulance failed to arrive and medics initially refused to treat him when he got there.
But Chris, 40, revealed he is making an amazing recovery.
He said last night: “Tarek’s surgeon said the bullet went in the right side of his chest but ricocheted and travelled over to his left lung.
“Miraculously, it didn’t go through his heart. It actually went behind his heart.
“He seems to be recovering well. He’s conscious and awake and has been talking, and he’s out of intensive care and has been moved to a recovery room.”
Tarek, 44, of Milngavie, near Glasgow, was at a bar in Cebu City with Angie and Chris when three men rode up to him on a moped and demanded his wallet.
It’s believed Tarek was shot after telling them to “f*** off ”.
The crooks fled with his wallet, which contained credit cards and the equivalent of £10 in cash, as he lay bleeding on the ground.
An ambulance was called but took too long to arrive, so Tarek was loaded on to a rickshaw and taken to a local hospital.
Staff there said they couldn’t do anything for Tarek until a surgeon arrived, then he turned up without the the proper equipment.
But Tarek was eventually given the emergency operation he needed before being transferred to another hospital.
Chris arrived in the Philippines shortly before the shooting with a kilt for Tarek to wear at his wedding.
He phoned the British Embassy in Manila to tell them about the attack on Thursday.
Tarek had been living in Stockholm in Sweden but flew to Angie’s homeland for their wedding.
They plan to set up home in Thailand, where she had landed a job as an English teacher.
Tarek fell victim to the high crime rate in the Philippines, where extreme poverty fuels attacks on foreign tourists. Cebu city is particularly notorious for crime. The country’s maverick president Rodrigo Duterte has fuelled the violence in the streets by calling openly for vigilantes to murder drug dealers. Duterte was condemned all over the world after boasting of murdering dealers himself. It’s understood Tarek’s parents are dead but the Foreign Office in London have been in touch with his next of kin. They said: “We are assisting a British national who was shot during a robbery in Cebu, Philippines, and are in touch with local authorities.” It’s believed Tarek’s insurance won’t pay his medical bills or the cost of flying him home, so friends have set up a crowdfunding page to try to raise £10,000 for his care. Wellwishers donated more than £500 within a couple of hours of the page being launched.
PHILIPPINES