As is usually the case with atrocities such as yesterday, where the eyes of the world are focused on a single city, certain images tend to stick in the mind.

One of the wider circulated photos from yesterday’s attack shows the fear that follows these incidents, a fear so enveloping that it can paralyse its victims. Here’s Ketevan Kardava, the woman who took the shot that ended up on the front page of the New York Times, talking to TIME:

Kardava was on her way to Geneva to report on talks between Russia and her home country, Georgia, when the first of two suicide bombers detonated his explosive vest. “Doors and windows were flying,” Kardava tells TIME. “Everything was dust and smoke. Around me there were dozens of people without legs, lying in blood.” Her first instinct was to look down at her own legs. “I couldn’t believe I still had my legs. I was in a state of shock.”

Less than a minute later, the second explosion sent everyone running for their lives. “I wanted to run to a safe place too,” she says. “But I also wanted to take pictures. As a journalist, it was my duty to take these photos and show the world what was going on. I knew I was the only one at this spot.”

Kardava’s first photograph was of the woman in a yellow jacket. “She was in shock, speechless. There was no crying, no shooting. She was only looking around with fear.” Kardava didn’t ask for the woman’s name, she photographed another victim – former Belgium basketball player Sebastian Bellin – before she was forced to leave the airport. “I left them and went to a safer place,” she explains. “I hope they are well. I really hope they will overcome all these difficulties.”

Another photo that is getting spread far and wide comes from the Greek-Macedonian border, this refugee holding up a placard of support during a protest at the border’s closing.

What a sad, sorry state the world finds itself in.

[source:time]