BOCA RATON, FLA. (WSVN) - A South Florida woman was among the thousands watching the Bastille Day fireworks in Nice when a truck plowed through the crowd, killing over 80 people.
In fear and thousands of miles away from home, Kayla Repan from Boca Raton spoke to the Associated Press shortly after the attack.
“I just saw someone running and screaming,” said Repan. “We had heard, I think I heard what I thought was fireworks still. I mean the fireworks show had ended but we just assumed they were fireworks still going off, but then really shortly after that I saw people running and you know we didn’t at this point have any idea what we were running from.”
Repan was visiting France along with her fiancé and friends, for what was supposed to be a trip filled with fireworks and cheers. Instead, they are now left scared, confused and lost.
“You know we’re not locals so we didn’t know where we were going, if we were going towards something, I mean it seemed like everyone was running, you know, we were running away from something but we were just turning down alleys and kind of looking for somewhere that might be safe,” said Repan.
Repan and her group eventually found shelter inside a restaurant. “A lot of the shops started closing the doors, so we went into a restaurant,” she said. “I asked them right outside, I mean they had just closed the door and I was like ‘Please let us in,’ so we ran into this restaurant and stayed in there for a little bit.”
When planning their trip to France, Repan and her friends said they were concerned due to the previous attack in Paris. However, they didn’t think terror would strike again. “You know since our whole trip, since we got here basically we had talked about what we would do and just sort of trying to exercise some sort of awareness,” said Repan. “In Paris I was super aware.”
After finding out what happened at the promenade where she and her friends gathered to watch the fireworks, Repan is just thankful to be alive.
“It’s just, I’m just still shaken,” said Repan. “It felt like in the moment there was just so much shock, and you know I guess we’re still in shock a little bit, but it took a while for us to just, I feel like all my emotions I’m just sort of releasing now.”
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