THE man forced at gunpoint to drive his work van to peace event in Belfast on Friday has spoken of his terrifying ordeal.
The electrician, who was hijacked by two masked men just of the Shankill Road, believed a bomb had been loaded into the vehicle.
With a gun pointed to his head, he was ordered to an event on the Crumlin Road where the Republic's foreign minister Simon Coveney was addressing a peace event.
Police, who eventually declared the device as a hoax after a controlled explosion, believe the UVF was responsible.
Speaking to the Sunday Life, the man, who chose to remain anonymous, said he thought he was going to die.
“I thought I was just another contractor targeted. I told them to let me go, just take the van.
“They told me if I didn’t carry the job out there is a car following and there was a guarantee I would be shot.
“They said, ‘We know who you are and where we can get you’.’’
Hearing the doors of the van slam shut, and believing he was carrying a bomb, he was ordered to drive to the grounds of Holy Cross Church in Ardoyne, where the John and Pat Hume Foundation event was taking place inside the Houben Centre.
“I thought if a tool drops, I’m going to explode in the van on the Crumlin Road,” he said.
Upon arrival, the man said he did his best to alert those inside the building.
He also expressed his gratitude to people in Holy Cross church who tended to him.
Believing he was suffering from a heart attack, the driver, who is aged in his 40s was rushed to hospital.
He told the newspaper he was later diagnosed with a severe panic attack.
The man, who is still recovering from Covid-19, said: "I feel lost, traumatised. My van has been completely destroyed, all the detonations wrecked it.
“I’ve had a terrible bout of illness, financially I’m ruined, my life has been taken away in a day. I’ve gone through the trauma of illness, the trauma of being hijacked, it’s all trauma, trauma.”
