Wednesday, May 05, 2010

Chaos on Dam square


Surprised faces after the anxious moment

I was at the Dam square, where the war memorial was taking place. During the 2 minutes of silence, even the smallest sounds from outside become loud in contrast to the thousands of people who were silent. I heard a scooter in the street behind me. And then I heard a long scream. And a big bang, like exploding fireworks. It was the sound of a panick-stricken mass escaping whatever it was that scared them. A big crowd of people ran towards me, running for their lives and so scared that they had no regard for the people in front of them.

I had to run with the scared mass for about 5 seconds otherwise I'd have gotten trampled. After that, I turned around and tried to comfort the running people by screaming: "take it easy! Take it easy!". All of a sudden the panic was over. Afterwards, I heard on the news that a man dressed up like an orthodox jew was the one that screamed, which caused a chain reaction of panic in the crowd. Around 60 people got wounded in the rush. Sometimes man's own fear can be its biggest danger.

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