Chicago student tells how she survived Brussels attacks
CHICAGO (WLS) -- A DePaul University student who was just steps away from the second bomb that detonated inside the Brussels airport talked to ABC7 about how she survived the terror attacks. She was not injured, but she witnessed the horror and bloodshed.
Ingrid Trujillo is finishing her law degree at DePaul University and was on spring break visiting her aunt and uncle in Brussels. The three of them were at the airport to take a flight from Belgium to Barcelona when they heard the first explosion and narrowly escaped the second one.
"When I saw the second bomb exploding, that was for sure. I confirmed it was a terrorist attack," Trujillo said.
As she fell to the ground, Trujillo said she knew instantly that terrorists were responsible.
"I feel like they don't have a heart. They don't have a soul. They don't have anything - what's the point of killing yourself?" she said.
In the midst of all this devastation, Trujillo, her aunt and uncle survived but were left reeling.
"What I saw was pretty devastating," Trujillo said. "There was a lot of confusion. People were desperate. People were screaming. That's when the second explosion happened. I was just so close to it. I was just maybe 15 steps away from it."
Trujillo described the chaos in the moments after the attack, with victims on the floor and others trying to flee.
"I really don't know how nothing major happened to me. I saw, of course, people, chairs all over. People on the floor. People with kids, toddlers, babies - trying to escape," she said. "I fell one time and I hurt my wrist. I kept on running, and I fell again and that time I hurt my right knee."
In the chaos, she dropped her backpack with her passport in it.
"I went back to get my backpack and my aunt was screaming and saying, 'Leave it there, leave it there,'" she said. "I felt kind of lost at the same time - because I didn't know where to go."
They ran toward an exit.
"The exit door was closed, so we were like, trapped in there. People were screaming, 'Open the door! Open the door!' I thought there was going to be another explosion here," she said. "I truly thought I wasn't going to make it. I truly thought I was not going to make it."
There wasn't. But days after the attacks, when she returned to the Brussels airport to fly to Chicago, she froze.
"I was terrified. I was like what if something happens here again to all these people?" she said.
And the fear is still with her now.
"We're not safe. I don't think we're safe," she said.
Trujillo, her aunt and uncle never made it to Barcelona. Instead, they decided to stay in Belgium. They stayed indoors for a few days. Trujillo said they did not want to venture out into Brussels.
Trujillo finally returned to Chicago Tuesday night.
