Aniq Taufiq Rozi, 26, said he also heard his comrades screaming for help just after the accident.

“I was semi-conscious after the accident. I only remember my friends pulling me out (of the crash site),” he recalled.

Aniq said he only learned of the death of nine of his colleagues while undergoing treatment at the Teluk Intan Hospital.

“That was the hardest thing for me to accept. It all happened in the blink of an eye,” he said.

Aniq was discharged last night and has returned to his family home in Arau, Perlis.

He sustained bruises in his lungs and other parts of his body and finds it difficult to sit because of pain in his hip.

His wife, Nor Farhana Razali, 28, said their four-month-old son, Mikhael Anaqi, was crying uncontrollably before she heard about the accident.

“It felt as if my son somehow sensed that something had happened to his father. I only learned about the accident from a neighbour some three hours after it occurred,” said Nor Farhana. The couple has been married for two years.

In the 8.50am incident on Tuesday, an FRU truck carrying 18 personnel from Unit 5 in Sungai Senam, Ipoh, was involved in a collision with a lorry transporting gravel.

The squad was returning home after completing their duties during the Chitra Pournami celebration here.

Nine FRU personnel were killed, while two were seriously injured and seven others suffered minor injuries.