The 29-year-old man drives bus service 160, which travels the route between Singapore and Johor Baru.

On Tuesday afternoon, around 3.45pm, the bus was returning from Kotaraya II terminal in Johor Baru, with five passengers, including two men, who had boarded the bus at the terminal.

Less than five minutes into the journey, outside the Danga City mall, the men approached a passenger - a middle-aged woman who was sitting alone.

They threatened her with their parangs and demanded that she hand over her money. She screamed, attracting the attention of Mr Ngieng. From where he was seated, he shouted at them to stop, but things got ugly when they suddently turned on him.

Demanding he bring the bus to a halt, they forced him to hand over his wallet, which contained RM$260, S$40 and all his personal documents. Once he had given it to them, the men slashed him and fled the scene.

Mr Ngieng suffered deep gashes to his left shoulder and fractured his left wrist. Bleeding heavily, he managed to drive his bus to the Customs, Immigration and Quarantine (CIQ) complex, about 1km away.

Malaysian traffic police on duty there took Mr Ngieng straight to Sultanah Aminah Hospital in Johor Baru, where he remained until he was transferred to the National University Hospital in the early hours of Wednesday morning.

When The Straits Times paid him a visit on Wednesday, the Singapore permanent resident who has been working with SBS Transit as a bus captain for the past eight years, had just emerged from surgery.

Though groggy and unable to talk much, Mr Ngieng managed to crack a smile for the steady stream of colleagues who came to visit.

A fellow bus captain described Mr Ngieng as 'nice, very friendly and on the quiet side.

'I couldn't believe the news when I heard it, it was scary. He was really unlucky,' he said.

Both men responsible for the assault are believed to be Malaysians. The Johor police are investigating the incident.