Even for a city as used to violent death as Kabul, the scenes after twin blasts here tore through crowds thronging outside the airport in hope of evacuation were apocalyptic.
For one man, a former employee of an international development group with a U.S. special immigrant visa, the day began early.
He joined thousands of people around the airport hoping to clear the gates and get onto one of the flights ferrying in and out in the final days of the airlift.
He had been in the queue near the airport’s Abbey Gate for around 10 hours when, at around 5 p.m., a powerful explosion went off.
“It was as if someone pulled the ground from under my feet; for a moment I thought my eardrums were blasted and I lost my sense of hearing,” said the man. “I saw bodies and body parts flying in the air like a tornado taking plastic bags ... into the air.
"I saw bodies, body parts, elderly and injured men, women and children scattered in the blast site. It is not possible to see doomsday in this life, but today I saw doomsday, I witnessed it with my own eyes," Reuters cited him as saying.
