Melbourne students shelter survivors in Nice nightmare

TWO Melbourne students, on the trip of a lifetime around Europe, have told how they hid about 20 people in their hotel room as terror unfurled on Bastille Day in Nice.

Melbourne-based university students Natalie Ryan and Andie Fine in Nice. Picture: Supplied

TWO Melbourne students, on the trip of a lifetime around Europe, have told how they hid about 20 people in their hotel room as terror unfurled on Bastille Day in Nice.

Backpacking their way around Europe, Monash University student Natalie Ryan, 19, and University of Melbourne student Andie Fine, 19, decided to splurge on a proper room for the night.

But instead of settling in for a restful night after watching the 10pm fireworks, the friends found themselves shielding terrified people while gunfire echoed in the streets outside.

MORE: Australians in Nice tell of Bastille Day horror

“We laughed at how loud the streets were, thinking that the French really do know how to party,” Ms Ryan said.

“Suddenly, there was a loud bang on the door, and we could hear other doors being knocked on as well. Andie looked at me and said, ‘Don’t answer it, it’s just drunk people’ ... the banging continued, so I decided to open it.

“In burst 20-odd people panting, crying, swearing ... among them, a mother and father with three young children who looked so confused and scared. With broken French on our behalf, and English on theirs, we were told that there was gunfire in the streets. Andie and I suggested that perhaps it was just leftover fireworks, but one woman turned around and firmly stated, ‘No, I know what gunfire sounds like, and I just heard it’.

“No one had a clue what had actually happened. Out of precaution we had the lights low and no one was talking. If a noise was heard, everyone was shushed so that we made no sound ... Others in the room who had lost their friends on the street in the rush were crying on their phones, trying to contact them.”

Ms Ryan said she felt like a “sitting duck” as the group waited for news. The group stayed about three hours before gradually leaving.

Ms Ryan said she felt incredibly sad, but fortunate to have escaped injury.

“We were so lucky I didn’t have a nap that day and was falling asleep during the fireworks. Otherwise we wouldn’t have gone straight to the hotel ... One move, one drink, one minute longer, and we could’ve been victims,” she said.

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