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“I saw her duck into car as shots rang out”

Photographer John Moore was taking pictures of Benazir Bhutto’s rally when she was assassinated. This is his account of what he saw on Thursday:

I had been covering the rally all day. A number of people had mentioned that although there were thousands of supporters in the park, it was far from full and there was a feeling that people may have been staying away because of the events earlier in the year in Karachi [when around 140 persons were killed in a suicide bombing].

When Ms. Bhutto finished speaking, she came off the podium, got into her car and her convoy appeared to be preparing to leave with her inside. I figured that events were over for the day and so, I was preparing to leave. When I turned round, I was shocked to see her standing out of the sunroof, waving to supporters.

I ran back to grab a few frames and waited as the car came towards me and I was pushed back in the crowd as the car came past. As this happened, I was aware of Benazir ducking back into the car and heard at least two gunshots. I picked up my camera unaware of exactly what was happening.

As I did so, a bomb detonated next to the car about 30 feet from where I was standing among the crowd.

I kept the motordrive running as I was pushed back in the crowd, getting pictures of the blast as it went off and crowd reeling from it. The volume of people stopped me from getting any closer. — © Guardian Newspapers Limited, 2007/Distributed by Asia Features

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