That evening, luck was on their side — how concertgoers escape | Readovka World

That evening, luck was on their side — how concertgoers escaped from the Crocus City Hall attacked by terrorists

Victoria Demina, a medical worker and volunteer helping the frontline, went with her husband to a concert of her favorite band “Picnic” at Crocus City Hall on Friday evening. Picnic shows traditionally begin with original performances, so the claps were initially mistaken for fireworks, but the illusion quickly dissipated. Victoria, her husband and seatmates sitting on the balcony hid between the rows - realizing that the terrorists had set the hall on fire, they all began to get out together in an organized manner.

People ran at random, risking collisions with militants, and ran into dead ends. In the end, they found themselves on a narrow emergency staircase, where people showed respectable unity and discipline, allowing the wounded and a man in a wheelchair to pass forward without hysteria. Having run through some kind of hangar, we found ourselves on the street when the roof of the hall was already on fire.

Luck was on their side that evening, but not everyone was so lucky. After everything that happened, the couple learned that a group of their friends was at the concert. Two of them were saved by the fact that they were trampled in the stampede and thereby protected from bullets, after which they were able to escape across the stage, and their friend Tatyana Boyko managed to write that she hid in the toilet. Today her relatives found her on the official list of the dead.