Witness: blast destroyed all four escalators with people

Diana, witness of the blast in Minsk metro, shares her story with Euroradio: "I was descending on the escalator at that moment, I made a few steps and heard two plops, they were almost simultaneous. I thought it was a petard at first but then I understood that it was a blast. There was lot of smoke in front of me and in behind and I was between the two explosions. One of the blasts destroyed all the four escalators with people. People rushed to the escalator but saw that everything was destroyed. They rushed back but there was smoke everywhere. Fortunately, the local services reacted quickly. A woman was crying loudly because her clothes were burning. A metro employee descended in some two minutes. They started helping us get out to the surface one by one at the private entrance”. Euroradio: Can you recall how many people were there at the moment of the explosion? Diana: "A lot. A train had just arrived. It was during the rush hour, at 6 p.m. EEST. A lot of people were ascending, I was descending and I was surprised that so few people were descending. But a lot of people were ascending, there was a crowd at the bottom of the escalator, people were standing close to each other. I was one of the first people to have reached the surface and many ambulances approached. I started walking and ambulances kept arriving. I saw injured people, I did not see any victims but I think that there will be a lot of them judging but what I saw”. I was very lucky; I think I have a great guardian angel. The blast wave blocked my ears when I was between the two explosions and I can’t hear you very well now. My knee is scratched, I think it was debris. I am a psychologist, I know what to do, you should cry and calm down, and you should not keep the emotions within”. I am urging all the victims to ask specialists for help”. Photo by — bymedia.net