Eyewitness Accounts From Inside Brussels Airport
Brussels came under attack Tuesday morning with apparent suicide bombs in its airport and a metro station during rush hour, killing at least 31 people, according to early reports. TIME correspondent Charlotte McDonald-Gibson, who is based in Brussels, was in the airport when the attacks occurred. The following are her account of what happened and interviews with passengers near her, Read more What We Know About the Brussels Terrorist Attacks, Denise Brandt, from Arizona , "We were in the departures lounge shopping area when we felt it and heard it. We were standing there, you feel it in your whole body. I was like thats a bomb, lets go'. People were running, we were just standing there and I said lets go!'. , We saw people running, and some people crying, so we knew it was a bomb. We found a quiet corner to go reflect in. It was very confusing, they don't manage expectations very well. Don't they rehearse these things? Don't they plan for these things?, We were in Terminal B then we heard later when we were walking up to the Brussels Airlines counter where there was a second explosion. We only heard one", , Andrew Brandt, from Arizona, "We felt like a wave, you feel it in your whole body, it is like you are in water and someone jumps in the water and you feel that wave. I'm former law enforcement, my wife lived in Afghanistan for years. We wanted to be away from the crowds. The airport staff have no idea what they are doing. They kept saying evacuate'. We were telling airport agents what we felt, that it was an explosion, then they were like what?'. , Then we heard evacuate, evacuate'. Then they say stay where you are'. Then "evacuate, evacuate". But everyone is just standing around. They would not let me take my bag. They said you are not going on the tarmac with your bag. The security people had no idea what they were doing. Where the hell were we supposed to go?.", Josh Balser, from U.S., Colonel Chuck Helms, U.S. military. , Yassine Amrani, a homeless person who lives in the airport parking area, These interviews have been lightly edited for clarity