We were first to enter the bus; we didn't think, just evacuated

Haaretz ^ | 2/22/2004 | Anshel Pfeffer

[yonif]

Anne Reichart, a German tourist who was on a nearby bus said "I heard a huge explosion and saw people running around and I just started crying."

"I felt blood on my head. I saw terrible things. I tried not to look," said Moshe Salama, a 56-year-old alternative healer who was on the bus. The left lens of his glasses was cracked where it was hit by a piece of shrapnel.

"Ten seconds after the bus left the [bus] stop, it blew up," a Jerusalem resident, identified only as Catherine, said Sunday. "I saw a huge fireball and debris flew all the way to where I was standing."

Jerusalem municipal council member Nir Barkat was driving his car toward the bus when the explosion occurred. "I saw the bus explode in front of me," he said. "I parked on the side of the road and was among the first to enter the bus. We began evacuating the injured and performed first aid. At the same moment we didn't think, but only focused on helping the people and rescuing them. About three minutes after the explosion rescue workers began arriving on the scene."

For a long hour after the explosion Barkat was interviewed by foreign media outlets. He said he planned to travel to The Hague along with a Foreign Ministry delegation, to protest opposite the International Court of Justice against the hearings being held over the West Bank separation fence.

Mahmoud Abu Snein, a Palestinian working at a gas station near the site of the attack said he was at the station making coffee when the bus exploded. "The bus exploded in front of me, and pieces of glass and body parts flew into the gas station," he said.

"It was like an earthquake," Ora Yairov, who was at the gas station during the explosion, told Channel One television. "The station was filled with shattered glass and pieces of flesh."

[GrandMoM]

If the democraps had their way, this would be happening here in America. It just breaks my heart that these people have to live in fear all the time.

....My prayers to those killed and injured.

[TheSpottedOwl]

And those F-16's are for......