Cairo Blast: Exclusive Eyewitness Account
Usually news about yet another bomb going off somewhere is just so dull. I found the story below to be really fascinating, like being there.
I have no idea if it’s factual, but then again, you never know that ...
Cairo Blast: Exclusive Eyewitness Account
7 April 2005: The following account was sent by e-mail to Laura Mansfield and the Northeast Intelligence Network by a good friend who is currently residing in the Maadi suburb of Cairo, Egypt. She was shopping in the downtown area, nearest the blast when it occurred earlier today. She was accompanied by her younger daughter and an Egyptian colleague. The only edit that has been made to this account is the redaction of the name of the woman’s colleague.
I had just gotten out of the taxi, and was walking down Sharah al Moski (Moski Street) getting ready to go into the Khan (Khan al Khalili, a major tourist bazaar) then BOOM. A second or two there was a concussive blast that shook the area - then silence, then screams, and people were running everywhere. Some running to the blast others running away. A few seconds later, the sirens started blaring.
I walked closer to the blast came from. I was looking at the ground because I was worried about other bombs, but I wanted to see what was going on. Curiosity overcame common sense. My daughter and [redacted] kept trying to pull me in the other direction. They wanted to get out of the area. My daughter was horrified – crying, begging to go home. She didn’t mean Maadi either. You could smell the petrol in the air, and the explosives. My daughter screamed. Right there on the ground in front of us was a man’s head, with no body attached. There were charred motorcycle parts scattered on the ground, Then just ahead of us were bodies. Dozens of bodies. And people bleeding.
People were helping the injured. I saw two veiled women in long black Egyptian robes caring for a blond tourist whose shirt had been blown off by the blast. The tourist was bleeding; one of the Egyptian women took off her veil and covered the tourist. The shopkeepers were encouraging the injured to come in and sit down. Over and over you heard “come inside – drink tea – it is safe here”.
It was so incongruous to what the newspapers report I started laughing. Moslem men in traditional dress offering sanctuary to injured western tourists; Moslem women taking off their veils to cover a hurt girl. In some ways I needed the reminder that all of Egypt wasn’t out to hurt us.
I remembered I had my camera and started taking pictures.
There were bodies on the ground. Some dead, some injured. Probably 2 dozen or more dead. Probably 50 wounded. More with scrapes and bruises. And cats were everywhere – the semi-tame feral cats prowled the area. Skinny, half starved cats who didn’t realize that the tourists were in no mood to give scraps to them at that moment.
It could have been worse. There was a tourist bus near the blast; it looked like the tourists had been moved into one of the cafes. If the bomber had gotten closer to the tourists it would have been worse. The police were pouring into the area, questioning people, confiscating cameras. I caught on in time to swap my memory card; they took the card in the camera and finally gave the camera back. I was able to keep most of my pictures.
By that time, ambulances were taking the wounded to hospital. The bodies in the street and on the sidewalk were covered. Shards of shattered glass were all over the ground. Most of the car alarms had been silenced but one continued to blare.
Then there was the donkey. Somehow in the midst of it all, everyone was ignoring the donkey. It had been injured, and was laying on the ground bleeding. Its owner was standing over it wailing – the zabaleen driver [garbage collector] probably could never afford a new donkey, and veterinarians were hard to come by in Cairo. I walked over and asked one of the security personnel to call a vet for the donkey. It was a long shot but I thought it was worth it.
He looked at the donkey, and said it was dying. He spoke to its owner, who mumbled what sounded like agreement. The officer pulled out his gun, and before I could yell NO he shot the donkey in the head, patted the owner on the shoulder, and walked off.
I was speechless. I reached in my pocket and handed the donkey owner a wad of Egyptian pounds, and had [redacted] tell him to use it for a new donkey. Then we headed home. The man followed me half a block, saying Shukrun, bowing over and over and kissing the money.
It was surreal. People were dead and I was worried about some dumb donkey.
NOTICE: The above account is exclusive to the Northeast Intelligence Network. This article MAY be reprinted in its entirety with proper citation to the Northeast Intelligence Network. ©2005 Northeast Intelligence Network. All Rights Reserved.
