“THE ONLY WAY I can describe it is, it was like being in a movie.”
Photographer Ray Hegarty from Rialto, Dublin was enjoying a family holiday with his wife and two daughters in the five-star Riu Imperial Marhaba Hotel in Tunisia last Friday.
It was the last day of their holiday and the family were soaking up the last of the sun down by the pool before checking out.
Suddenly I heard what I can only describe as a firecracker go off. We were at the end of the steps, the two girls were in the pool. It was just the case of going into automatic pilot mode. I just said get out of the pool and we ran for our lives.
At this point Hegarty said they were unsure of what was happening.
All I kept thinking about was the attack at that hotel in Mumbai, that’s what was going through my head.
He got his daughters, who are aged 17 and 20, out of the pool, and ran.
All I could hear was gunfire. Your instinct just tells you to run, run, run, but looking back I ran back for my bag, which had our room key in it. I just remember hearing ‘whooshing’, which must have been the sound of bullets.
It was difficult as we were wet from being in the pool and the ground was slippy. We were staying on the third floor of the hotel, so we ran into the foyer. We ran up the stairs and I told people not to use the lifts. It felt like grenades were going off – I don’t know what it was, but it was very noisy and frightening.
When the family got into their rooms, they locked the doors, and barricaded themselves in by putting the mattresses up against the door.
“We could hear a lot of shouting and roaring.”
Hegarty said they had a restricted view from the balcony, but he did see a dead body lying on the ground at the front of the hotel.
He said they called their families to let them know they were safe and their holiday company called to check they were safe too.
“We got dressed as we were still in our bikinis and swim gear,” said Hegarty, who decided he would venture out of the room with his wife.
They left the kids in the room but when they got to the foyer, the authorities were shouting at them to get out. “We had to try and explain that our girls were back in the room and we weren’t leaving them.”
It felt like a movie, like it wasn’t real. It was a movie that had gone from a Disney movie to a horror movie. We were fortunate in a way that we didn’t see any other deceased, other than the person I saw on the ground, and neither did my girls.
The scenes were not something Hegarty said he will forget easily, stating that the sight of the blood-soaked stairs will stay with him.
A lot of emotions were stirred up, and in a poem written by Hegarty, he describes the day:
That dayHuge palm Trees
Danced in the BreezeBeautiful birds crooned
In harmony flowers bloomed ,The sea that hugged you when you swam
In water wild and water calmA Paradise by Oceanside
Pure white sand where parachutes clide
This beautiful place, filled with nature’s grace.
That day
Unnatural sounds of violence filled the airHammer of bullet and bomb echoed everywhereLove was sucked out replaced by a harrowing hateAn Invisible cloak of evil covered our fate
“Run Run” run for your life and those in your careOur Souls were scattered, everywhere
That day the sunbeds, turned into deathbedsand visions of everything changed in my mind.It wasn’t nature’s fault, it’s the fault of mankindThat day.
“We tried to keep the head, for the girls, as best we could. The girls were very badly shocked. They have been telling their friends about it, but I’m not sure they feel the reality of it yet,” said Hegarty.
Thirty eight people were killed at the beach resort of Sousse last Friday.
The Irish victims were Laurence and Martina Hayes from Athlone and Meath mother-of-two Lorna Carty.
The funeral of the Hayes’ is taking place today.
Photos courtesy and copyright of Ray Hegarty. You can find more images from his portfolio here
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