“We just met at my office a few hours ago. Regrettably, I was unable to accede to his demand,” Lim wrote on Facebook yesterday, moments after fire department personnel managed to stop the 49-year-old man from jumping off a barrier on the sixth floor of the shopping mall.

Lim did not give details of the meeting, but China Press reported that the man, who could not speak Malay, had asked the politician to accompany him to the police station to lodge a report.

Lim is well known for accompanying his constituents to lodge police reports over cases involving loan sharks as well as other community issues.

Just last week, he had agreed to accompany a youth to the police station, following public outrage over a viral video of him berating a non-Muslim beer promoter in a supermarket.

Mohamad Edi Mohamad Rias, however, failed to turn up at the police station.