First person account: ‘People thrown like dolls by blast’

People thrown like dolls, an old woman struggled to fight off nervous attack, a baby almost fell from the escalator…the harrowing moments of a few of hundreds of people caught in the early Friday afternoon powerful blast at the Glorietta 2 mall in Makati. Hours after the 1:30 p.m. carnage, GMANews.TV received several email from those who were at the wrong time and at the wrong place at the mall, recounting their brush with death. Shattered glass Hi, just want to impart my experience earlier in glorieta. i was on my way going back to my office from renewing my nbi clearance at park square 1. when suddenly something exploded in front of us (i was with my fiancée) about 10 meters away. all the stores in front of us and beside us had a shattered glass and i saw people throwing around like a doll. all of the people on our position were shocked for a moment. my life flashed in front of me thinking about my 3 mos old son. i took cover of my fiancée and by the time we are on our selves, we found the security shouting on us, telling us to run and go outside of the building. BTW we are standing just along the goldcrest walking towards the explosion. it was a horrible experience. if we were just in a hurry for a less than a minute. our son will be "ulila" at this moment. October 19, 2007, 4:20 pm Gabriel Sison 4028 Cordillera St. Olympia Makati City We were at eating at the foodcourt of Glorietta 4 when that happened. We were taking pictures...then, suddenly, the crowd panicked toward the exit. We don't really know what is going on. I looked around and I saw some people who were very nervous.. all of them seemed to be rushing down the escalator. At first, we thought somebody has run amok or has a gun or something... so we also rush to the exit... The escalator was crowded. I saw an old woman who seemed to be having a nervous breakdown, and a baby almost fell from the escalator... When we got out, there are hundreds of people in front of Ascott... (in the mini park outside Glorietta 4). - October 19, 2007, 2:33 pm Chad Quezon City Happy for prompt update weeeeeee! thanks sa update ah..! galing ang bilis talong talo ang abs cbn news..! hehe update pa nag aabang me dito.. hehe :P - October 19, 2007, 3:28 pm Jehzeel Laurente Sta. Cruz, Manila Correction EDIT CORRECTION: "Ochosa described the explosion as similar to lightning but muffled. He said he saw shoppers, some of them panicking, run out of the mall." should be thunder, not lightning. - October 19, 2007, 2:34 pm nikki Cubao Quezon City - GMANews.TV