Leanne Devine, a Sydney salon owner originally from the Kilkeel area, helped people who were fleeing from the attack
A County Down woman who runs a hair salon close to the scene of the Sydney stabbings kept her business open to shelter those fleeing from the attack.
Six people were killed when a man stabbed customers in Westfield Bondi Junction shopping centre on Saturday.
Leanne Devine said “traumatised” customers came into her salon having run in fear for their lives.
“We’re in shock mode,” she told the Australian Broadcasting Corporation’s ABC News service.
“I’ve been in Bondi Junction for 21 years and I’ve never witnessed anything like this.”
She described the situation as “just horrific”.
Before emigrating to Australia, Ms Devine lived in Brackenagh, just outside Kilkeel, and is a former pupil of St Columban’s College.
Her hair salon is on Sydney’s Oxford Street, close to the shopping centre, and many of her clients work and shop in Westfield.
‘Really scary’
Speaking to ABC News, she explained that her staff had been getting ready to finish up for the day when they saw “hundreds and hundreds of people running out of Westfield”.
Image source, DEAN LEWINS/EPA-EFE/REX/Shutterstock
Police continued their investigation at the scene on Sunday
Ms Devine said those fleeing were “shouting and screaming” and saying that they had heard gunshots and that people had been stabbed.
They were in tears, she said: “What they saw was just traumatising”.
“We had lots and lots of people come in, showing us the photographs of what they’d seen.
“They had to sit down, we had to give them water, we had to say: ‘Are you OK?'”
‘Ready to pass out’
One of the people she gave shelter to was an elderly woman who was still in the salon several hours after the attack, recovering from the ordeal.
Ms Devine said the woman had been carrying shopping bags and “was running that hard that her legs are so sore, she can’t walk home”.
Other people took shelter because their cars were trapped in Westfield’s car park for hours while a major security operation continued.
“Paramedics have obviously come in to use the bathroom because they’ve been here that long,” Ms Devine added.
“The paramedics are in tears. They have seen stuff that they have never witnessed before, ever.”
Speaking to BBC News NI, she said some of the elderly customers looked like they had been “ready to pass out” as she and her staff tried to calm them down.
At that stage, none of them knew if the attack was continuing or if the suspect was still on the loose.
Video shows Sydney stabbing attack suspect in mall
“It was a really scary, traumatic time,” she said.
“It was horrific seeing a young child running and crying.”
The man who carried out the attack was shot dead by a lone police officer.
Queensland Police said he was known to them, having been first diagnosed with a mental illness at 17.
Ms Devine said her thoughts were with all the victims – the dead, the injured and those who witnessed the attack.
“I just feel so sorry for everybody who was in Westfield,” she said.
“I feel to sorry for all the families – the five woman and one man who were killed and what their families have to go through now.”
