Naef Zakaria Al Wazan and his wife were on a dinner date on New Year’s eve in Istanbul when their night turned into a struggle for survival.
The couple — now being treated for gunshots at a hospital in Turkey — were among the survivors of a terrorist attack at Reina nightclub that killed at least 39 people.
Wazan’s wife, originally from Jordan, still pale, her eyes swollen from crying, described to CNN how the festive evening turned into a bloodbath.
“When the song (lyrics) said “Okay Let’s Go”… I heard (shooting) like, dat dat dat dat dat,” Wazan’s wife, who didn’t feel comfortable about being named, said.
In a nearby hospital bed, her husband, exhausted, in a soft voice said: “Thank God we are okay we are safe.”
A bullet had pierced the Saudi civil engineer’s shoulder and exited from his back. His wife was shot in the knees. The couple laid on the ground of the nightclub in pain unable to run for their lives.
Thinking his life was going to end, Wazan gave his wife his ring as intense shooting continued over their heads.
“He was like saying if I die just be with my son until he gets older and after that live your life. I love you. Know how much I love you,” Wazan’s wife recalled him saying.
“His ring was filled with blood. He just give it to me and told me ‘keep it with you,” she told CNN as she held the now cleaned silver ring.
The Wazans’ trip from Saudi Arabia was their first away from their son. Wazan had surprised his wife to celebrate the beginning of 2017.
Of the people killed in the club, seven were from Saudi Arabia. Thirteen others were injured, the Saudi consulate told CNN.
ISIS claimed responsibility for the attack, but authorities are still searching for the killer.
When Wazan’s father heard about the incident, he flew to Istanbul to see the couple. All of them broke down in tears when he arrived in the hospital room.
“Thanks God him and his wife were lucky,” Zakaria Hamza Al Wazan told CNN.
Naef Zakaria Al Wazan said his wife is still trying recover from the shocking night.
“I was seeing people’s bodies and thanking God [we are alive]. It was like a dream,” she said as she sobbed.
In the taxi that took them from the nightclub, she asked her husband: “Can you just hold my hand and tell me if we were in a dream and are we going to open our eyes again? Are we alive?”
