OK, let's see and grade according to my 0-2 point system - which system of course expresses my purely personal views on the subject.
First the questions related to the utility of such discussion:
Leslie: You don't think about things like this, you just do it.
Wrong. We are humans, not animals. We do not live in a natural world for which we have evolved instincts. We face dangers and tasks for which we have no intuitive reaction built in by nature.
That is why humans engage in and benefit from training - even if it's only a mental exercise. We think when we have time - like now is the perfect time, actually - so that we act correctly without much thinking when the situation arises.
AKIron: Lotta variables here. Pretty tough to know what you'd do without being there.
Right. But what should you be looking for to make the decision when being there? What should you pay attention to? Who will teach you?
Now to answers/grades:
Leslie: I'd try to get away from it as fast as I could.
0 points
With wife and kid(s) there, only option would be to stay to protect them
1 point
vorticon: i would move to a safer part of the cafe...then just wait for emergency response teams...
1 point
crabofix: Start filming and sell it to CNN.
That's a valid choice. You did not specify what you would do about the survival of the people you care about, so no basis for the grade.
AKIron: I'd probably get the wife and kid(s) under a table to avoid falling debris. I'd take a minute or two to assess the situation and look for a way out.
1 point
Sikboy: I would cower in the corner and wait...
1 point
Gunthr: We are going to quickly walk out of the building via the least congested exit, and continue walking away until we are out at least several blocks away.
0 points
Habu: Remove your family from the danger of further injury by locateing them in a safe area.
...or out a back door. Doing the obvious thing like walking out the front may be the worst thing to do if a car bomb is out there...
2 points
Better then I expected. Now to the analysis.
The optimal technique for terrorists going for maximum human casualties in the simplest way possible is to detonate a small backpack charge that would cause a panic and flush a large crowd of people into the open, preferably restricted area. Then a massive charge, possibly a car bomb is detonated.
Car or a large bomb is hard to bring into a crowded public building and exploded outside without creating a target it will kill very few people.
So if there is an explosion inside or close to your restaurant that you happened to survive, you should immediately grab your family and run out back through the kitchen in the back of the premices - away from the main street where the crowd would pour out to from multiple spots. That is no matter if the way out front is open and the way inside is crowded or obstructed. Once out in the open on the back side of the building, you should move further - to the other side of the block from the main entrance, stop there to check for injuries and try proceed away from there.
If the way back is blocked or temporatily crowded, you should cover as far back as possible in the room, preferably behind a structural support.
You definitley do not want to come out into the killing ground to be blasted by the main explosion and you do not even want to take chances that the blast outside will destroy the rest of the place you are in, so you do not come out front and stay in only if the way back is blocked.
A correction to the Habu's great answer.
The conventional Western terrorists go out of their way not to hurt or injure civilians. That is why they warn about the bombs, detonate charges where/when few are likely to be hurt. They want publicity but do not want to appear as mass murderers and lose public sympathy.
They will always try to target policemen or other law-enforcement rather than civilians. That is why the second bomb is set to 5 minutes - time enough for the police/resque to arrive and for the civilians to clear the area.
The real terrorists will go for the maxumum death toll possible. The main charge will be detonated at the moment when the maximum crowd pours out to the street - most likely not set on timer but by remote control or manually by a suicidal bomber.
You cannot expect to have minutes to check for injuries or clear the area through the front.
Any thoughts?
Oh, yeah - that's exactly the way 200 people in Bali died and hundreds got injured. Small explosion to flush them out, massive explosion to kill them.
miko
