Wilmington Resident and Daughters Safe after Brussels Attacks

Photos Courtesy of Paula Borges-Stalker

WILMINGTON, MA - A Wilmington mother and her two daughters are safe after being in Belgium during the terrorist attacks Tuesday.

Paula Borges-Stalker told Wilmington Patch she and her daughters were in the center square having coffee when a journalist approached them and asked for their thoughts.

“We had no idea as we had not watched television,” Borges-Stalker said. “We walked quickly back to our hotel and armed soldiers were everywhere.”

There were three explosions Tuesday in Brussels, Belgium killing more than 30 people and injuring hundreds. Bombs exploded in a transportation hub in Brussels on March 22, 2016, just four days after officials captured, in a nearby neighborhood, one of the most wanted terrorists involved in the November 2015 attacks in Paris. The Islamic State group took credit for all three explosions Tuesday,

Borges-Stalker says the family’s hotel was located across the street from the hospital and all they could see was ambulance after ambulance bringing in victims. “The sirens were deafening. The ambulances just kept coming for hours," she said.

The three stayed locked in their hotel. By 4 p.m. the day of the attacks she said the mood started to lighten and they saw people walking around. At that point they hired a cab to drive them to Holland.