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“We were just standing there and we heard ‘boom-boom-boom’, and I said to Greg, ‘That sounds like fireworks,’” she added.

It was shortly after 10 p.m., and moments later the noise turned into rapid fire and security staff began screaming at people to get down on the ground.

But Greg told his wife to run.

“We just ran with about 20 people,” said Kim Hartle.

“You’re in self-preservation mode,” said Greg Hartle, who works in Ottawa as a consultant. “It was like a scene from a Rambo movie. He must have discharged two or three hundred rounds into the crowd … He was tracing back and forth across the crowd.

“The moment we took off, many, many people started trying to take cover,” Greg added. “People were hiding under cars.”

The Hartles escaped through a side exit and did not see first-hand the carnage.

“Luckily we had just moved about 100 feet back a few minutes before,” Kim said. “We would have been sitting ducks for sure.”

The couple ran to the nearby Tropicana Hotel on the opposite side of the concert venue, she said.

“Some chefs were there with their doors open and were screaming: ‘Get in! Get in! Get in!’”

The shooter was still firing and the echoes made the shots appear a lot closer, she added.

“It made it sound like he was on the strip, or another person was on the strip where we were.”

In the ensuing confusion, Kim was knocked over and trampled; her husband had to pick her up and they ran again.

The Hartles ran to the pool area, ducked behind a car and eventually ran behind a fire truck blocking the road to get to their hotel, she said.