Three Quinnipiac University students who were at the airport in Brussels, Belgium, when two blasts went off early Tuesday morning saw a fiery explosion and said they are shaken up, but safe.
Cate Duffy, 19, of Natick, Massachusetts, Lauren Cleary, 19, of Abington, Massachusetts, and Monica Hall, 19, of Sutton, Massachusetts, have been studying abroad in Cork, Ireland, this semester and are on spring break, so they were heading from Brussels to London to go see an Adele concert when the attacks happened.
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"We were probably there for about 10 minutes and we were at the check-in line, waiting to get our tickets, and we heard one of the bombs go off, but we didn't see it and we didn't really realize what was going on," Duffy said.
Then, before they could process what happened, the second explosion went off right in front of them.
"It was huge. It was like a fire explosion. It shook the floor," Duffy said. "The ceiling started falling. At that point, everyone just started running and screaming."
As chaos ensued, the students stayed together and got out of the airport, but Hall lost her bags and everything but her identification, tickets, a journal and her camera.
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They ran until they saw a father and son in a car, waved them down and asked for help to get away from the airport.
"We all just piled into the back of his car," Cleary said. "All of us were just kind of freaking out and called our parents to tell them what was happening."
They were brought to the U.S. Embassy, where they went through some questioning.
After waiting, a man took them to the cafeteria, gave them lunch and spoke with them and took notes, Hall said. The FBI later asked them to map out what had happened.
Another Quinnipiac student, Madeleine Harder, 20, of Baltimore, Maryland, is studying abroad in Belgium this semester. She was at her internship for a media training company and first heard about what had happened on Twitter.
"I saw the story breaking on Twitter and then my boss got a phone call and we both looked at each other, and this was originally with the airport bombings, and we were really nervous and then we just sat there, glued to Twitter as everything was happening," she said.
She had to walk home from her internship and other people were outside as well.
"It seems pretty somber, but people weren't completely locked up in their houses or apartments," she said.
Harder's family is visiting for the week, so she is with them and said it's comforting to have them close.
Northeastern University in Boston has also confirmed that five of its students who are in Brussels are safe.
"Northeastern University has confirmed that all five students currently in Brussels, Belgium, are safe and well," the school said in a statement. "Upon receiving reports of multiple explosions in Brussels this morning, university officials made direct contact with students who are currently in that city for co-op, study abroad, or personal travel. The university is monitoring the situation closely in order to provide ongoing assistance and support to members of the Northeastern community currently in that region."
The University of New Hampshire, said that two of its students who were studying in the country and one who was visiting are also safe.
Six employees of Allagash Brewing Co. in Maine arrived at the Brussels Airport right after the blasts, and said they are also OK. Company founder Rob Tod said he and five of his employees arrived in Belgium just minutes after the attack and that they were going to get a Paris flight back home.
He told necn he did not see any of the aftermath first-hand.
We are all 6 safe, and headed for a flight out of Paris. A very, very sad day for Brussels — Rob Tod (@allagashrob) March 22, 2016
Allagash Brewing Company released a statement saying, “Now, our thoughts are with the people of Brussels and Belgium. This is a very sad day for a city and country that means so much to us."
The company travels to Belgium every year.
A Connecticut resident was reportedly injuried in the attack. The injuries are non-life threatening.
U.S. Sen. Jeanne Shaheen of New Hampshire had just left Belgium after taking part in a forum there on Monday in her role as a member of the Senate Foreign Relations Subcommittee on Europe and Regional Security Cooperation.
Her office issued a statement saying she is currently returning from Brussels and Estonia. She left Brussels on Monday to take part in meetings in Estonia and is scheduled to return to the U.S. on Tuesday.
