An Afghan British Council English teacher and his wife were saved by soldiers from the Kabul airport bomb, which killed 170, with just minutes to spare. The pair held up a picture that was spotted by military personnel, who pulled them to the edge of the crowd to check their papers. Moments later the suicide bomber’s device exploded where they had been standing, just 15m away.
The pair qualified for one of the last remaining civilian fights out due to the teacher’s wife’s job with an international non-profit project, according to The Metro newspaper.
“Words cannot express how I feel. It really seems like a miracle for both of us to leave the country,” 28-year-old Kabir (an assumed name to protect his family) told The Metro newspaper. “Thousands of people were trying to reach a single soldier just to show their documents in order to get out of the country. There were between 5,000 and 10,000 people. It was crazy. But the soldiers saw us holding up the sign, and came and took out us out of the river. They saved our lives.”
The pair are now in Italy, where they have been evacuated because of Kabir’s wife’s job, but are hoping to relocate to the UK, as Kabir speaks fluent English and not a word of Italian.
