The team escaped death by 3 to 4 minutes: Bangladesh team manager Khaled Mashud

Bangladesh Cricket Team narrowly escaped death when the mosque at Christchurch was attacked by terrorists who opened gunfire, leading to more than 40 deaths. The team was about to reach the mosque for Friday prayers when they heard the sound of the gunshots and also saw visuals of people dying. The cricketers were asked to lie down on the floor of the bus before the police came and escorted them. Opener Tamim Iqbal took to social media, asking fans to pray for the team’s safety.

Bangladesh team manager Khaled Mashud also expressed the horror of being involved in such a ghastly incident and said that they were lucky to escape it as only two of the team members had stayed back at the hotel, while the rest 17 were on the bus. It could have resulted in a huge casualty.

Speaking to reporters at the team hotel, Mashud said: “This was a kind of accident that we would never expect nor want in any part of the world. We are very lucky because we had a number of us, about 17 of us, in the bus. Soumya Sarkar was also there, and we were all heading to the mosque for prayers. Only two of the players had stayed back in the hotel, and rest of the squad had gone there. We were very close to the mosque, and we could see from the bus. We must have been about 50 yards from the mosque.”

Escaped death by three to four minutes 

He also narrated what exactly unfolded. He said that had the team reached even three or four minutes earlier, they would have been inside the mosque and amongst those who died. For around ten mins, the team entire lay on the floor of the bus, to avoid any gunshots fired at them.

“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. 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 in about eight-ten minutes, we were all inside the bus and were sitting with our heads bowed, just in case someone fires at us.”

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