Stockholm shopper says truck attack was 'like an avalanche'
Christoffer Ung had just finished running errands at a central Stockholm department store when a truck came barreling through the wall toward panicked shoppers.
"I'd been doing my shopping and was heading towards the exit and, about 10 metres from the exit I hear a loud noise and the the wall came at us like an avalanche," Ung told As It Happens host Carol Off.
"My first thought was that maybe there was a bomb that had gone off," he said. "My second thought was, you know, getting out and getting safe."
But it wasn't a bomb. It was a truck, which rammed into crowds of people on a pedestrian street in central Stockholm before crashing into the upscale department store, killing several people in what authorities are calling a terror attack.
"There was glass shattering, things flying everywhere, people running around me in panic, screaming, and everyone was heading away from the wall coming in," Ung said.
His first instinct was to try to help people, he said, but everyone was fleeing in the same direction and all he could do was join them.
"I was heading right towards it, towards the exit where everything happened. So It was just, you know, turning around and running as fast as you could."
Shock and adrenaline
The attack killed at least four people and injured 15, according to Reuters. However, reports of the exact death toll vary.
Swedish police said they had arrested one person after earlier circulating a picture of a man wearing a grey hoodie. They did not rule out the possibility other attackers were involved.
It was only after Ung escaped the building unscathed that he realized what had happened. He said he could see the back of the truck sticking out of the building.
"There was flames coming out of the building and dark, dark smoke pouring out as well," he said. "When we got out, I could see people lying in the street."
He said he could barely process what was happening.
"When you're in the moment, you have so much adrenaline that you don't really think about it, but when the adrenaline's coming down, you feel a shock coming on," he said. "It was really, really nasty."
The deadly attack comes a little more than two weeks after a man drove an SUV into pedestrians on Westminster Bridge in London. A fifth victim from that attack died on Friday.
Similar attacks were carried out last year in Nice and Berlin.
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Ung says he hopes what happened won't change people's attitudes in Sweden.
"Hopefully, it won't have that much of an effect because, if you're scared, the terrorists have won. So I hope people will go about living their lives as best they can, having everything normal."
He also hopes it won't change how he, personally, sees the world.
"I can never be certain about how I would feel in certain situations, but I really hope I won't change and I hope I won't be afraid of anything or anyone because that would be really sad."
With files from Reuters and Associated Press