Adrian Borg returned safely from Libya yesterday after witnessing automatic gunfire on Sunday right outside the place where he was staying.
“Just 15 metres away from the gate of our camp where we were sleeping on Sunday the grocer was ransacked and then the intruders opened fire on him,” he said.
Mr Borg, 35, was working on a subcontracted construction project for the Libyan government and, together with other Maltese men, was camping onsite.
At 11.30 p.m. gunshots pierced the night and Mr Borg and his colleagues realised the nearby grocer was being attacked. “I think they wanted to scare the owners,” he said.
That was enough to get them packing and they quickly set off for the airport the next morning. They reached the airport at 3 p.m. on Monday but were allowed in six hours later. Their flight left Tripoli at about 4 p.m. yesterday.
A Libyan national who returned to Malta on Monday described hearing gunfire on Sunday evening as protests reached the capital.
“They got louder and closer and came from all directions. It went on for about two hours,” he said. Sporadic gunfire continued all night.
The man, who works for a Maltese company and lives a few kilometres from Tripoli’s Green Square, preferred to remain unnamed.
On Monday morning, he said he saw burnt-out buildings belonging to the regime, the abandoned headquarters of the state telecommunications company, its guard posts ransacked, but troops guarding a television station with jeeps equipped with anti-aircraft guns.
He had not intended to return to Malta just yet but a relative warned him the airspace could be closed on Tuesday and so he took his chance at the airport.
He estimates that 90 per cent of the country’s population has turned against Muammar Gaddafi. “He is just holding on to Tripoli. I think everywhere else has fallen. He may have some support left but it is not strong. When they saw what was happening people changed sides. Those who were afraid were emboldened.”
He feels Col Gaddafi cannot survive: “It is only a question of time.”
His comments were made before the Libyan leader made his defiant speech yesterday afternoon in which he threatened protesters with execution.