For half-hour final Friday night time, Alyona Kazinskaya’s cheerful social media feed changed into a timeline of terror.
Ms Kazinskaya and a good friend had purchased last-minute tickets to a rock gig at Crocus City Hall, the place gunmen rampaged by means of the building, killing greater than 140 folks.
Bursts of loud gunfire might be heard in her first 10-second audio message posted on Telegram at 8.01pm.
“I really like you all. I’m in Crocus City Hall – Picnic. They’re capturing right here, on the live performance. I’m within the corridor. Call the police.”
She instructed Reuters she tried to flee however folks had been already crowding the exit.
“At that second they [the gunmen] entered the corridor. Then I threw my good friend to the ground and I stated ‘let’s crawl’.”
At 8.08pm she wrote three messages with trembling fingers in fast succession.
“Please ring the police!!!!!”
“Crocus City Hall.”
“Shooting.”
By now, the pair of them had escaped the corridor however had been nonetheless trapped contained in the building.
At 8.17pm, a one-word audio message: “Fire!”
The gunmen had used gasoline to set the massive live performance corridor ablaze.
The two mates took refuge in a bathroom, attempting six instances to depart however thwarted by thick smoke.
By 8.23pm, she left a four-second audio message she thought can be her final.
“I really like you. Goodbye.”
Yet the pair would escape after discovering a person hiding in one other bathroom who knew a method out of the building.
At 8:31pm she left a brand new audio message: “I’m alive. I’m getting first assist. I acquired out. Thank you.”
