A Buddhist monk remains in an induced coma while a temple caretaker is recovering after a nail gun attack between the pair at a Sydney temple.
The 29-year-old monk and 59-year-old Buddhist leader have been identified as Karuna Kim and Tha Lam.
The pair were found with injuries to the head at a Cambodian Buddhist temple in Rossmore, in Sydney's south west, about 3.30pm on Wednesday.
Mr Lam - who is the president of the Vat Ketanak Khmer Kampuchea Krom - is now out of his coma and told a member of his congregation he heard a 'bang, bang' before he was shot, 9News reported.
Monk Karuna Kim - who was the alleged shooter - is still in an induced coma at Liverpool Hospital's intensive care unit.
It has been reported both men had surgery for their injuries and Mr Kim had a 10cm nail in his head.
Temple caretaker Tha Lam's condition has improved and remains stable.
Member Vannara Kim told the broadcaster that Mr Lam was most likely doing paperwork when Karuma fired off the shot that lodged a nail behind the temple president's right ear.
'He [Mr Lam] said to me, first of all he heard 'bang bang' like the nail gun,' he said after visiting the leader at the hospital.
'After that the monk grabbed his head and shoot him. That's what he tell me and that's what I heard from the man.'
Translators are assisting police in interviewing witness to the shocking incident
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Translators are assisting police in interviewing witness to the shocking incident
The temple is located on Wynyard Avenue in Rossmore - which is in a usually quiet rural area of Sydney
Vannara said he was close friends with both men who were 'very good and respectable people' and Mr Lam was talking 'like normal'.
'Sometimes this world is not very perfect 100 percent, we are very, very sad about this one.'
Police believe one man shot the other in the head with the nail gun and then shot himself but authorities don't know who was holding the weapon.
It is believed the weapon used was a Paslode nail gun, commonly used by tradesmen, according to the Daily Telegraph.
Police said the pair were the only two in the cottage being constructed on the property when the nail gun was fired.
'It's an unusual event,' Green Valley Superintendent James Johnson told AAP.
'We still have not been able to work out the full circumstances of what happened.
'It's very early days and we're having difficulty with the language barrier.
Earlier Mr Johnson told reporters that officers found one man with 'a nail protruding from his head' when they arrived at the Wynyard Avenue scene.
'He was being treated by local residents at the centre. [Police] then found a second man inside a residence... with a wound to his head,' he said.'The 59-year-old has had the nail removed and is in a critical condition. '
'The 29-year-old... the nail remains in his head.'
Read more:
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2813397/Two-men-remain-induced-comas-fight-nail-gun-ends-shot-head.html
