Dubai: A UAE resident has spoken of her relief at narrowly escaping the suicide bomb blast that struck eastern Yemen on Sunday.
Adrianna Tan, a 23-year-old photographer from Singapore, was meant to be in Shibam at the time of the explosion. But in a twist of fate she decided to head for the port city of Aden instead with her local tour guide.
Adrianna, who has been living in Dubai for six months, said: "I was at the bus station in the capital Sana'a on Sunday with my guide, a local called Ziad Ali. We were about to buy a ticket to go to Shibam but for some unknown reason we decided to head for Aden first; Ziad said he had a 'weird feeling about going to Shibam'."
The explosion in the ancient fortress city of Shibam, a Unesco World Heritage site, killed a local guide and four South Korean tourists; four other South Koreans were injured in the blast.
"The previous day we had met the tour guide who was killed in the blast; he was one of Ziad's best friends. If I was in Shibam, I know I would have been out and about taking pictures of the 16th century buildings; the city is often called the "Manhattan of the Desert".
"I was in a hotel in Aden when news of the blast broke; my guide started crying as he had just lost one of his closest friends. I felt quite shaken as I knew we could have been there."
Adrianna, who runs a blog called Popagandhi, said she utilised social networking websites such as Facebook and Twitter to inform her family and friends that she was safe.
"I received phone calls from some of my friends but by far the most effective method of communication was my Twitter page. Most people don't know my telephone number in Yemen so I tweeted "Ok, I'm alive. Although I nearly wasn't" and it reached over 2,000 people."
A suicide bomber hit a convoy carrying the South Korean ambassador in the capital Sana'a yesterday. The delegation, which included a team sent to investigate Sunday's bombing, was targeted on the road to the city's airport.
Adrianna said: "In Sana'a, life seems to be going on as normal and people aren't acting like the blasts are a big deal. It has happened before and the locals are used to such attacks. Ziad told me he thought he would be selling potato chips for the rest of the year because it was unlikely tourists would visit anymore.
"These attacks keep happening in Yemen - bombs, kidnappings, tourists being held at gunpoint - and the local people feel powerless to do anything about it. It is a really unfortunate situation but it is out of their control."
