Friend tells murder trial of knifed asylum-seeker's last moments

A Turkish asylum-seeker stabbed to death in an unprovoked confrontation with two men was the victim of a racially motivated attack, a court was told yesterday.

Firsat Dag, aged 25, cried, "Oh my God, I've been stabbed", and collapsed near a bus stop shortly after he was in punched the chest. He had been trying to get home from the centre of Glasgow to a tower-block flat in the Sighthill area in August.

The High Court in Glasgow was told of the last moments of Mr Dag's life. His friend, Erkan Ayyildiz, 16, said the attack started on a motorway footbridge when two men shouted and began chasing them. He said one appeared to punch Mr Dag in the chest. "He came close to Firsat and he said, 'Who are you?' and Firsat said something I didn't understand," Mr Ayyildiz said.

"Then he turned to Firsat like that," he added, gesturing as if striking a blow. "I didn't see anything in his hand. I thought it was a punch. Then Firsat went backwards. I told him, 'Let's run', and we ran together. He was holding his right hand to his chest and he said, 'Oh my God, I've been stabbed'. I didn't believe it, but then I saw there was blood. It was on his hand and his clothes. He was bending forward from the waist and he couldn't run very well," Mr Ayyildiz said.

"He stumbled two or three times until he reached the bus stop. I asked him if I should take him to Sighthill and he said, 'No, phone an ambulance'. I said, 'Come on, get up'. He was on the floor and trying to move, but he was saying he was in pain. He was speaking, but he couldn't breathe easily."

Asked in court to identify the man who had stabbed Mr Dag Mr Ayyildiz said he could be only 60 per cent certain, and singled out in the dock Scott Burrell, 26, of Barmulloch, who denies the racially aggravated murder of Mr Dag. Mr Ayyildiz said: "Maybe it was him, but I can't recognise very well."

Mr Burrell also denies assaulting Stephan Herold, a German tourist, on the same day, and breaching the peace at Strathclyde University. He is further charged, with Graham Mills, 29, of Petershill Court, of a race attack on Barzan Amini at Petershill Court in March. Both men deny the charge. Mr Burrell has lodged a special defence of incrimination to charges concerning Mr Dag, blaming a man named Martin Gould, from Balornock.

Mr Herold told the court he was attacked by Mr Burrell within a few hours of the death of Mr Dag. Mr Herold, 36, who lives in Thailand, said he was walking back from the city centre to stay with a friend at Strathclyde University when two men set on him, leaving him with severe stomach injuries and a slashed face.

Weeks later, he said, he picked out Mr Burrell at a police identity parade. The trial continues today.