“We hid the scared people in the shop”
When you decide to pack your suitcase and literally move to the other side of the world, you are undoubtedly pursuing an important experience. And if the destination is Sydney, considered one of the five safest capitals on the planet, it is hard for the traveler to imagine that this desire for life could lead to a near-death situation. However, have encountered something similar Chavi Raventos, a 23-year-old man from Zaragoza, was caught about 50 meters away in the attack last Saturday at the Westfield Bondi Junction shopping centre, which left seven people dead.
Chavi landed in the Australian capital last February. After completing the ADE degree at the University of ZaragozaMotivated by a desire to improve his English and the prospect of soon finding a job to pay for his stay, the young man decided to follow in the footsteps of one of his best friends: Miguel, another native of Zaragoza with whom he now lives, And like him, after leaving his resume “at over 60 companies”, only three weeks earlier he had obtained a position in a store in the same shopping center that a 40-year-old man chose to end his life on April 13 Was. A man stabbed six people, including the mother of a nine-month-old baby, and injured eight others to varying degrees.
“It was around 3:20 in the afternoon. I had just finished my lunch and was serving a customer when we started seeing people running away. It is a big shopping center, not as big as Puerto Venetia, but the same, and sometimes the children run and scream. But seeing that it was getting worse and that Within minutes, crowds of people started running everywhere, so we got scared,” Chavi Raventos told Heraldo from Sydney.,
The man from Zaragoza explains that he owns a small shop that sells beard and hair care products. “At that time I and my two other colleagues were working. And we were shocked. We didn’t know what was going on or what to do, but a guy had just arrived who knew a lot about security. They told us we had to quickly close and draw the curtains, so we did. but before “We kept as many people inside as we could, including a family with a 10-year-old girl who was scared and wouldn’t stop crying.”He is related.
hidden behind the counter
Chhavi remembered that place is so small People had to hide behind counters and be “crammed together” into a small room used as a warehouse. “I don’t know how many people came, but a lot. And they had to be calmed down, because everyone was so nervous. Of course, us too,” the man from Zaragoza confesses. “And when we heard the first shot very clearly we were already silent and crouched. “That made us even more scared, because we still didn’t know what was happening outside,” he says.
The Aragonese man assured that the time that passed from the time they took refuge in the store until the evacuation alarm was sounded was “disturbing”. “We had lowered the curtain, but it can be easily pulled up. And there was nothing else between the hallway and the compound where we were all hiding,” he says. “We were one of the last people to leave,” he adds. “We didn’t until we saw the police passing by.” As soon as I came out, everything looked like a movie., Deserted malls and agents telling us to run away.”
Once on the road, Chhavi took her motorcycle and went straight home. “Upon arrival I really started to realize what had happened. I read that six people were killed, many were injured… and when I saw the videos shown on television I realized that the person who was shot had earlier passed right by our store. Probably I was taking care of someone and I didn’t notice, but I had her standing a few meters away,” he admits. Absolutely, Once safe, one of the Zaragoza native’s priorities was to call family to reassure them., “As it was early morning in Spain when everything happened – 4:00pm in Sydney, 8:00am here – I thought they might not have realised. But one of my two brothers had already read it,” he says.
“They are paying us without going to work”
Chavi assured that what happened on Saturday has shocked Australians, “since this is a very safe country, where many people live carefree and usually leave the doors of buildings open. ” The fact is that the authorities ruled out a possible attack from the first moment – unlike what happened this Monday, when a teenager also stabbed a priest and several parishioners in Sydney – and the deaths were attributed to a sick person. Told in this form, which brought some calm. Mood. Nevertheless, since the massacre occurred, the shopping center has not reopened.
“At the moment, everything is still closed and we have not been able to return to work. Of course, the people in charge of the store I’m in have called us to ask if we’re okay or if we need some kind of psychological help. And they’re paying us for the shifts we should have worked. so I can’t have any complaints in that regard.” explains Chavi Raventos, who these days earns his living as a deliveryman.
The experience has marked the Zaragoza native and he admits that he now questions more things than before. What hasn’t changed are his plans. “If I don’t get an offer that forces me to return early, I hope to stay here at least until Christmas. I have a visa till February 2025. But I can take the English test here that they require for the master’s degree, so I will take advantage of that,” he concluded.