Steve McCurry [Photo credit: David Clark]
Three suicide bombers reportedly died in explosions outside France’s national stadium where France were playing Germany in a friendly football match.
Speaking to CBS News on Saturday, McCurry – who is famed for his 1984 National Geographic portrait ‘Afghan Girl ‘– described the panic that followed the blasts.
‘We heard the explosions. We thought it was part of some show and we started to leave suddenly…
‘It was a stampede of people running and screaming and I thought I was going to die… because I was getting pushed down to the ground…
‘Eventually, I was able to get behind a wall but it was complete mayhem and chaos.’
McCurry, who took some photos with his iPhone during the football game, added: ‘Slowly people started getting messages on their phones and, after some minutes, people started to leave and flood onto the field because they didn’t know where to go…
‘When we got outside it was just bedlam.
‘It reminded me of 9/11. I was down at Ground Zero on that particular day.
‘It was just people fleeing for their lives and I saw people getting knocked down. It was an horrific scene.’
McCurry explained how he had tried to escape the stadium but was pushed back as people were ‘charging around like wild animals’.
The photographer was forced to wait for two further hours before the exits cleared and he was able to leave the stadium.
