Kentish Express Ashford & District
Family witnessed horror attack in Berlin market
‘If my daughter hadn’t asked to look at those decorations we would have been in the centre of it’
A family say a spur-of-themoment decision to turn back and look at some decorations at the Berlin Christmas market saved their lives.
Lynn Butler, owner of the Indulgence Cafe in Coombe Lane, Tenterden, and her husband Barry, were on a short break with daughter Laura and her fiance Alan and were looking round the market at Breitscheidplatz, when a truck ploughed into stalls in a suspected terror attack.
The attack on Monday night injured 48 people and left 12 dead.
Lynn said: “We were on our way out of the market at the point where the lorry entered when my daughter Laura, 28, said ‘mum, can we stop for a minute and look at these decorations.’
“While we were looking we heard a loud rumbling noise and people crying out.
“A group of policemen ran past me and nearly knocked me over trying to get to the scene.
“Some people were saying there were not enough police there but that’s not true as we saw plenty of policemen.
“A woman came towards us limping and crying and the stallholders were in floods of tears.
“It was totally surreal and we didn’t want to go anywhere near the exit as my husband said there might be a bomb on the lorry.
“The stallholders were crying, everyone was crying.
“It all happened less than 50 yards away from us and we are very lucky as it could have been so much worse.
“If my daughter hadn’t asked to look at those decorations we would have been in the centre of it.”
Barry and Lynn live in Maidstone and Barry is now medi- cally retired due to a heart condition.
The attack happened around 8.15pm local time on Monday and the family returned to their hotel badly shaken. They had only flown out to the German capital on the Monday and are due to return to Tenterden today (Thursday).
But Lynn said they would not let the terror attack stop them continuing with their plans
She said on Tuesday: “We are taking the tourist bus today to look around the city as we can’t give in [to these attacks].
“It could all have been so different but I guess it wasn’t our time to go.”