Saskia Hartog had just checked in at Canberra Airport to fly home to Melbourne, when gunshots rang out in the terminal.
She was on the phone to her aunt, when she heard what sounded "like airport trolleys bashing together".
Harthe quickly realised it wasn't.
A man had opened fire near a security screening area.
READ MORE: Man arrested, Canberra Airport evacuated after gunfire in check-in area
"Everyone started screaming, and yelling 'run,'" she said.
"It didn't feel real."
Harthe said she was shepherded into a back room with some Qantas staff.
"((We) got told to hide behind some furniture and duck down," she said.
"We didn't really know what was happening, it was pretty terrifying."
Harthe rang her father from the room, who told her to stay calm.
She's unsure how long she was cowering in fear, before the group was told to evacuate.
"I couldn't tell you how long we were in there, and then we got evacuated out," she said.
When she called her father later to say she was safe, he started crying, she said.
Meanwhile, Gary Hallissey was sitting down, waiting to collect his son inside the terminal, when he heard "three or four" shots.
He said the handful of people sitting nearby him ran into the toilets, while he got up and moved.
"It sounded like shots but it could have been a car backfiring," Hallissey said.
"People were panicking, a little bit, they were concerned.
"I got up and went behind a pillar, in case there was some nutter and the place with a gun – which there obviously was."
After being ushered outside by security, he saw the gunshot holes in the glass a level above him.
He said the police response was "very quick" and he saw the alleged gunman in handcuffs.
"We don't normally have this issue in Canberra. It's a rare occurrence to have somebody fire bullets in an airport," he said.
Hallissey's son told him he was on the Tarmac but wasn't allowed off the plane.
Georgina Chandler was in the Qantas lounge heading to board her plane to Adelaide when the incident unfolded.
But she wasn't allowed out to her gate.
Chandler was told the airport was about to be evacuated, and was soon escorted outside by staff
"It's a bit unnerving," she said.
"Not what I was expecting."
There was confusion on social media over what was happening.
"Canberra Airport is in lockdown we are not aloud to get off our plane, anyone know what's going on? one traveller asked in a Canberra Facebook group.
Walter Olsen shared a video from inside the airport showing people standing filming on their phones, with sirens going off.
"Fun times at Canberra Airport. All evacuated due to gunman. None hurt from what I understand. Suspect apprehended by AFP," he said.
"We were locked down in a quarantine area, all exits were locked.
"We were evacuated about 20 mins after this. No one had any idea what was going on."
John Schulman said he was "standing in the freeing cold," after being told to go outside.
Juliana McArthur wrote she arrived at the airport to, "find it a crime scene."
Timeline of the Canberra Airport shooting
Around 1:30pm (AEST)
- A man opens fire in the Canberra Airport terminal, near a security screening around the check-in area
- The terminal is evacuated and all flights are grounded. Passengers on arriving flights remain stuck on the tarmac, unable to disembark
- Footage emerges on social media of a man being arrested by police with what appears to be a handgun on the floor in front of him
2:38pm
- ACT Policing release a statement confirming one man has been arrested and a gun taken from him
- Police say there is no ongoing threat, and that the man is believed to have acted alone
- They confirm no injuries have been reported
3:30pm
- ACT Policing confirm the man fired around five shots inside the terminal, but say it doesn't appear they were targeted at people. Instead, they say the gunman fired towards the terminal's glass windows
- Police confirm the terminal remains in lockdown, but stress there is no threat to the community
5pm
