ESCAPE FROM HELL
Geelong business identity Deb Nash tells how she survived, metres from the rampage Australian boy, 7, still missing in Spain
WELL known Geelong business woman Deb Nash has told of her “bloody close” brush with death at the hands of terrorists in Barcelona.
The manager of highly regarded Fyansford catering company and reception venue, Truffleduck, was just 30m from the carnage in Barcelona and cowered at the back of a shop as the devastation unfolded.
Ms Nash yesterday told the Geelong Advertiser she was shopping with a friend and had just crossed famous Las Ramblas St in Barcelona and entered a shop when the terrorist van ploughed into pedestrians on the busy footpath.
“We were literally walking across Las Ramblas to go home and we deviated to look in one last shop, when all of a sudden people just started running and screaming up the arcade,” Ms Nash said.
“If we hadn’t have stopped in there who knows what would have happened. “There were probably 20 people in the shop, we could hear police sirens, ambulances, people still running up the arcade for a short period of time and I did cower to the back of the shop as I didn’t want be at the front. We were just basically looking after each other at that point and listening to all the Spanish people talking, obviously scared as you could tell by their voices,” Ms Nash said.
Trapped in the lockeddown shop for two-and-a-half hours, everyone in the store was in shock as they tried to comprehend what had just happened, she said.
“We had a lot of time to process while we were sitting there. We were fortunate, we were so lucky. It’s just one of those things; we weren’t meant to be on that strip at that particular minute, but we were bloody close,” Ms Nash said.
“It’s just not fair. There were reasons why we weren’t’ two minutes earlier and that we had stopped in that shop. I feel so lucky. It’s just so sad for those people that were there.
“They were just having a lovely time wandering the strip, enjoying such a special path. It’s just hard to comprehend.”
Ms Nash said she felt incredibly fortunate to have survived the attack but was devastated to think of those who had lost their lives or been seriously injured.
“We were at the right place at the wrong time, and we were safe. That was the most important thing, we were just so lucky,” Ms Nash said.
“But that’s the thing that haunts me, just the people that weren’t so lucky. It’s just so sad. We could have been killed.”
Ms Nash said she planned to continue on her monthlong European holiday and refused to let terrorists stop her travelling in the future
“It can’t scare us away.’’