"When I was already about 400 meters away, I saw a large white cloud of smoke rise up. I didn't hear any explosion, but I immediately understood that something serious had happened." This is the account of one of the customers of one of the businesses in the building that collapsed in the Pistunina district of Messina.
The woman, still in shock, speaking with Gazzettadelsudonline, says she "feels like a miracle survivor: I was in that shop just two minutes before the accident." "I was at Viola's and with me," she adds, "there were at least twenty people inside the shop, all busy shopping."
Before leaving the shop, she had also exchanged a few words with the owner of the business. "We were talking about the holidays they were supposed to take soon," she recalls, "thinking about it now, it gives me chills."
Many people are crowding around the collapsed three-story building. Tears, screams and crying among relatives. Among them is Sakira, originally from Sri Lanka, who can no longer get in contact with her brother. "He is among the missing," she says, "he went to work at 3 p.m. and until now we haven't seen him again. There were other people."
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