I was inside when the Russians bombed Mariupol drama theater: survivor’s story

We began making our way out. All the people sheltering in the basement managed to get out. The exits weren’t blocked and everyone was able to leave the building.

There was chaos and blood everywhere. People were screaming and crying; some were hysterical. I, too, was in hysterics. Next to us in the basement lay a young, curly-haired boy. I don’t remember his name. His dad was in the field kitchen when the bomb hit. Everyone was killed. The little boy went into hysterics. I grabbed him by the shoulders, shook him hard and shouted:

“Your father is dead! You must live! You should live… for him!”

To tell the truth, I was in a trance. I saw a girl helping the wounded, and I thought that I could also help out. I applied bandages, but I don’t remember the people that helped. Everything was covered in fog. I only remember someone’s leg, an open wound on someone’s calf, the calf muscles hanging from the open wound, but held in place at the very bottom of the leg, near the ankle joint. And no antiseptic, you understand!? So, I mechanically tied the hanging muscle to the bone.

No bandages. We tore everything that we found into strips and twisted them tightly around the open wounds. I remember some men tearing a blanket into long strips, which I used to bandage someone’s hands and feet. I helped about eight people. But, during those moments, I felt very distressed and agitated… for the life of me, I really can’t remember who these people were. You know, I’m very strong, very resilient, but my brain felt totally blocked.
Nadiya can’t say how many people died that morning at the theater. She maintains that everyone in the basement survived. But, it’s hard to say how many people were actually there. The people who had settled in the front area of the theater also survived.

Everyone else was killed.

Nadiya’s daughter, Natalia, provides more specific details. She claims that there were no more than 400 people in the basements that day.

-I’m pretty sure that there were no more than 400 people in the basement. Several hundred were in the front area of the theater.

I think that about 100 people died during the air strike – all the volunteers and the people who were near the field kitchen waiting for their hot water. The others, in the right wing of the building, died under the rubble, because there was no one to help them out. I think that would be about 200 more people, maybe more.

https://euromaidanpress.com/2022/03/26/horror-and-terror-in-mariupol-eyewitness-testimony-of-the-bombing-of-mariupol-drama-theater/