The 50-year-old housewife, who was in Turkey to visit her daughter studying in the country, said the incident occurred when she and seven other tour group members were taking a train at 10pm after they went shopping.

She said the train suddenly stopped in the middle of nowhere before it reached Sultanahmet station and all roads were closed to traffic. They then decided to walk back to their hotel.

“We walked for more than two hours and we did not even bother to look behind or stop although (we were) very tired because we were too scared. Helicopters were hovering in the air and there were repeated sounds of gunshots.

“At that point in time, we could only pray that we would arrive at the apartment safe and sound.”

She narrated her experience to reporters when met at the Kuala Lumpur International Airport (KLIA) here today.

Siti Zarinah, together with 39 other Malaysian tourists from the same tour group, arrived at KLIA on Qatar Airways flight QR846 via Doha, Qatar, at 3.50pm.

Another tour member, Mohd Sukki Othman, said they only found out about the real situation when they reached the hotel, after they were informed by Malaysian students over there.

The religious speaker, better known as Ustaz Shauki, said he was grateful when the botched military coup came to an end quickly and the situation returned to normal.

“That evening, we saw people taking to the streets from our apartment windows. They were sounding their car horns and the mosques performed the ‘azan’ (call for prayers).

“The next day, Istanbul was back to normal as if nothing had happened and there was no sign of any major destruction in the city,” he said.

The Turkish Government announced on Saturday that it had foiled an attempted military coup to topple President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.