We were lucky not to be caught in crossfire: Bangladesh Manager on mosque shooting

"We were really lucky. Had we reached even three or four minutes earlier, we probably would have been inside the mosque," said Bangladesh cricket team manager Khaled Mashud on Friday after narrowly escaping the deadliest terror attack in New Zealand's history.

The Bangladesh team, which was scheduled to play in the third and final Test against New Zealand starting here on Saturday, was on its way to the mosque, one of two sites of the shooting attack that killed at least 49 people. The tour has now been called off.

"I would say we were really lucky. Had we reached even three or four minutes earlier, we probably would have been inside the mosque. This could then have been a massive incident," Mashud, a former Bangladesh captain, told reporters.

"We are very thankful that we weren't caught in the crossfire, but what we saw was straight out of a movie scene. We could see bloodstained people staggering out of the mosque.

"Maybe for about eight-ten minutes, we were all inside the bus and were sitting with our heads bowed, just in case someone fires at us."
"It wasn't their fault, they tried their best according to whatever they are used to in their culture. Our players supported them a lot, with inputs on what was needed at that point of time. Our decision to get out was timely, because in videos we saw that people came out and kept shooting later."
"It is natural to be affected. When you see something like a terror attack in front of you, and you see blood spilled in front of you, this will affect any human being. It wouldn't have occurred to us then that we would be safe later. Some of the boys inside the bus were crying as well, because they were all worried about how to get out of there."