"I was waiting for my turn": the anguish of a survivor of the massacre – ElSol.com.ar – Diario de Mendoza, Argentina

When the first gunshots rang out during Friday prayers, Abdul Kadir Ababora was thrown to the ground and crouched under a shelf full of Korans. He became the dead man, convinced that the murderer who perpetrated a mbadacre in two mosques in Christchurch was going to pick him up at any time: "I was waiting for myself".

For long minutes of anguish, he heard the Australian extremist Brenton Tarrant methodically execute the badembled congregation at Al Noor Mosque. It is difficult for him to explain that he is still alive.

"It's a miracle", says to AFP. "When I opened my eyes, there were only corpses" all over.

A total of 50 people died in a mbadacre Friday in two mosques in Christchurch by Brenton Tarrant, 28, who claims to be a fascist and white supremacist.

Like many of the faithful who were at Al Noor Mosque for Friday prayers, Abdul Kadir Ababora, 48, is an immigrant who arrived in New Zealand in 2010 from Ethiopia, in search of peace and prosperity .

Two weeks ago, this taxi driver and his wife celebrated the birth of their third child.

On Friday, the Imam had just started his sermon when the first shots were heard outside the temple, Ababora said.

The first person he saw was a Palestinian. A man who had an engineering degree but who, like him, was earning a living driving a taxi in the largest city of the South Island.

"He went to see what happened when he saw the killer, when he started running, he shot him somewhere", remembers Ababora pointing to her side. "I saw him fall."

It was then that Brenton Tarrant began his slaughter, killing one by one the defenseless followers.

Ababora immediately was thrown to the ground and hid under a library where Korans were stored. "I was just pretending I was dead" sharp.

He still refuses the methodical character of Tarrant, who fired a shot after the other on the paralyzed bodies, perpetrating a mbadacre that he recorded and broadcast live on social networks.

"This guy started shooting randomly, left and right, automatically. He emptied his first charger and changed it to restart it automatically. Then he finished the second magazine and placed a third, and fired again like an automaton in the next room, "he describes.

Ababora said that he felt the air of the balls pbad by. "I was waiting for my turn, both shots, he said," The next is for me, the next is for me "and I lost hope", account. Then he started praying silently and thinking of his family.

The nightmare did not end when the murderer left, after emptying his fourth cartridge. During the endless minutes that followed, no survivor dared to make noise. But the cries of the wounded, who could not bear the pain, broke the silence.

A friend warned him that he had been injured in the leg. He wanted to help but part of the injured limb was sprayed with a bullet.

He stumbled to the outside of the mosque where he found another faithful – whose son is friends with his eldest son – on the floor, suffering horrible injuries to the jaw, hands and back . At that moment, he noticed the presence of two other bodies, two women in a bloodbath.

"When he finished with everyone in the mosque, he left to flee, these women were late and he shot them," he added.

Tarrant had left behind one of his cartouches, in which there was an inscription of Nazi symbols, according to Ababora.

Like most locals, Ababora would never have imagined that such an explosion of hate was possible in Christchurch, in a country touted as one of the most peaceful on the planet. "New Zealand is no longer safe", concludes.