NZ tourist shot in spine hard at work learning to walk again

The New Zealand woman shot in an attack in Jordan that killed one tourist and wounded six others has spoken out for the first time.

Verena Doolabh, a doctor in rural Queensland, was shot in the spine on September 4 by a gunman who opened fire on a tourist group in Amman.

British tourist Christopher Stokes was killed almost instantly.

Jordan police arrested Nabil Ahmad Issa Jaaoura, 38, a Jordanian of Palestinian origin, who said he wanted to avenge his two brothers killed in an Israeli raid on Lebanon in 1982.

In an interview with One News, Dr Doolabh was shown painstakingly learning to walk again as she embarks on months of treatment in a hospital on Australia's Gold Coast.

"It's actually quite interesting learning how to walk again, it's just not something that comes naturally - you actually have to really concentrate on how you normally walk," she said.

The tourists never saw their attacker, who shot them in the back.

Dr Doolabh said she did not feel any pain.

"I screamed when it happened, my bullet ended up in the spine and instantly my legs gave way and I just collapsed onto the stairs.

"Being a doctor, I thought instantly I'm going to be in a wheelchair."

Dr Doolabh immediately turned to assist her fellow injured tourists, but she said she was unable to help Mr Stokes, who was too far away from where she had fallen, and he was probably already near death.

Jordan's King Abdullah paid for her medical care, and the travel costs for her parents to come and get her, and see where the shooting took place.

She said the gunman waited more than 20 years to seek revenge because he had five children and wanted to wait until they had grown up.

- NZPA