Out comic Amy Lamé got caught up in Brussels terror chaos ‘I used up one of my nine lives’
Out comic and LGBT activist Amy Lamé has opened up about getting caught up in the Brussels terror attacks.
At least 30 people died and many were injured in the coordinated terror attacks in the Belgian capital on Tuesday, when bombs were set off in an airport and on the metro.
LGBT activist and comedian Amy Lamé has revealed that she was caught up in the chaos – and missed one of the bombs by just minutes.
She said: “I feel I used up one of my nine lives in Brussels.”
Speaking to Jon Gaunt, Lamé explained that she had been in the city to attend a mentorship event at the European Parliament run by the Fabian Women’s Network, affiliated with the Labour Party.
She said: “This was meant to be the highlight of our nine month programme – two days in Brussels and a visit to the European Parliament.”
Lamé said: “We were at the hotel, we had breakfast, we were getting ready to get on the metro, and the television in the hotel flashed up that there had been a bomb at the airport.
“But we were late already, we had to get to Parliament… so we were led to the tube station.
“I was very nervous about getting on the metro and had a mini panic attack on the metro because we know how these terrorists work.”
Explaining that the group narrowly escaped the blast, she said: “We got off the metro two stops away from where the bomb exploded – we missed it by just a few minutes, really.”
After leaving the metro they were able to make it through security into the European Paraliment, when a lockdown was ordered.
She continued: “As soon as we arrived they said ‘we’re in lockdown and you’re not allowed to leave’. No-one in, no-one out.
“I was really panicking… it’s the randomness of it that’s so frightening.
“We were in lockdown for a few hours, and then we were able to leave.”
She added that the city’s transport network also entirely shut down, leaving the group stranded when they were able to leave Parliament.
She said: “We were meant to be getting the Eurostar back to London, but that was cancelled… we had to walk 45 minutes across the city to our hotel, which was the most awful thing. The looks on people’s faces, the despair.
“It was very quiet – all the shops shut, everything was closed. It was like the city had gone to shutdown, and that was sad.”
The comic was eventually able to return to London, after a minibus was sourced to take her and the party across the border to France.
