x
Breaking News
More () »

Local woman was a block away from deadly scene in Barcelona

It was Sarah Skrip’s last day in Barcelona. The West Hartford native had spent two weeks in Spain with her boyfriend, and was doing some last minute shopp...

It was Sarah Skrip's last day in Barcelona.

The West Hartford native had spent two weeks in Spain with her boyfriend, and was doing some last minute shopping.

Once she got back to her hotel, which was only a block away from Las Ramblas, she heard sirens.

“I heard one go by, and then I heard another one go by.”

Suddenly her boyfriend burst into the room.

“He said there's something going on, a van just hit a bunch of people on Ramblas."

The two had been very close to the site of the attack just a half an hour earlier, but decided to avoid Ramblas because it was so crowded.

After the attack, her first thoughts were of the people whose first thoughts were of her.

“Fielding text messages and phone calls and video chats and just reassuring our families that we were in the safest spot to be right now."

Sarah says police blocked off the street outside her hotel, and the staff there reserved the basement and first floor for victims and their families, and the police officers, EMTs and social services workers helping them.

It was, ironically, a scene she had hoped to avoid when she made a fateful decision earlier in the trip.

"We were supposed to go from Barcelona to Majorca to Paris, and we decided not to go to Paris because of everything happening in Paris..."

Before You Leave, Check This Out