Shot Australian tells conflicting tales of flotilla shooting

Paul McGeough reports on the wounding of Ahmed Luqman Talib, allegedly shot by seagoing Israeli hyenas:

Recounting the moment he was shot, Mr Talib said: "I saw a man who nearly got shot – I could see the red dot of the laser weapon sights on his knee, but he moved in time.

"I felt it slice through my leg – blood was squirting from my right leg and then a second bullet sliced across, just above my knee. I was still standing, but my leg jerked up in the air and froze like that – for a time it was paralysed. With my weight on the good leg I tried to put it down – but it wouldn't move.

"I couldn't believe I had been hit, but that's how it looked – bullets, holes and blood."

He attempted to find his way downstairs to the first-aid post, which by then was chaotic. But he collapsed and when others carried him in for treatment, first his sister and then his wife observed that "he seemed to be OK", tending to others they thought were in greater need.
 

Luqman Talib's "exclusive" account at the ABC is just slightly different:

Mr Luqman said he was on the back deck of the flotilla flagship the Mavi Marmara, running to get inside, when he saw a laser sight settle on his leg.

Then he was down.

"I obviously knew that I'd been shot when I could see a bullet on the floor and a puddle of blood," he said.

"Blood just pissing out of my leg, from two holes. You put two and two together, and it looks like you've been shot."

The first bullet tore through his leg, partially severing his femoral artery. Another shot hit near his knee.

So in the chaos of the moment, while running for his life, Luqman Talib was not looking at the cover he was running toward, he was looking down at his legs and around at the legs of others. Then there's the bullet that tore through his leg and magically dropped to the deck on the spot – perhaps fired from the Texas School Book Depository. Regardless, his nursing student wife felt he was "OK" and not in need of immediate treatment despite allegedly sustaining a partially severed femoral artery. I'm no medical expert but it seems likely that a badly damaged femoral artery, much less one that has been partially severed, could lead to death through blood loss within minutes if left untreated.

It also worth noting that the photo attached to the ABC "exclusive" shows the forlorn victim and his worried wife whereas the photo with the McGeough article has a rather robust looking Luqman Talib showing off his wounds.

And if Israel's hyenas are really intent in shooting people in the knees they need some target practice.

Update: The ABC no longer describes its story as an "exclusive".