Witnesses describe scramble to escape after Port Authority blast
Shaken straphangers caught up in the Port Authority terror attack told The Post of the terrifying moments when they heard the blast and ran for their lives.
“I heard a kaboom. It was shaky,” said Jamar Moore, 39, who was near a turnstile when he felt the explosion.
“There was a little rumble. Everyone just hit the stairs and started running. People were losing their pocketbooks. Once we heard that pop, everybody was out.”
In the mad scramble to flee after the would-be suicide bomber’s explosive device erupted underground, people at the station were falling over each other, trampling on others and losing their shoes, Moore recalled.
“People started getting trampled. I see about three to four people falling,” he said.
Sarah Benelli, 35, was on an A train that had pulled into 42nd Street/Port Authority when the bomb detonated, shaking the whole train and causing frightened commuters to jump on board to try and get away.
“I had headphones on, but I felt this rattle in my chest. I pulled the headphones out, and it sounded just like thunder. It reverberated for a couple seconds, and it was really loud,” said the Inwood resident.
“As I heard the rumbling, I heard people on the platform running on the train. There were a couple expletives; people were obviously scared. A few people ducked down in the train, and people were shouting to get away from the doors so the doors could close. They wanted to get out of there.”
Those who’d already exited the train could see smoke coming out of the tunnel where the device detonated, another witness said.
“We heard, ‘Boom!’ Then we saw smoke coming. And then, right after the smoke, I just ran upstairs. All of us just ran upstairs … When you hear a boom and see smoke, that means get the hell out of there,” said Christina Bethea, 29, a security guard from Yonkers, who had just gotten off the A train when the bomb went off.
“I said, damn, I’m gonna move back to North Carolina. New York City is too much for me.”