What's the worst thing you've witnessed? [Content warning added by MNHQ: distressing content]

[Osidge]

Not long ago I was awoken at 3am by loud banging outside. It sounded like someone was banging on my window. I went to look and I saw three men with baseball bats hitting a car in the middle of the road. The car was revving and then I saw another man run out of the opposite house with a huge machete and a big ruckus ensued. I was absolutely terrified as I had visions of people breaking into houses.
I called the police and an armed unit came. There was chaos with people running and shouting. Police with rifles and dogs. Helicopters with beams going for hours.
I was really shaken for weeks. This was in south London so I guess not too surprising but I've never seen anything like it before.
Have you ever witnessed something horrible?

In the case of someone collapsing I a supermarket the staff should be keeping other customers away from where it was happening. I used to work in a supermarket and it did happen occasionally. A staff member or manager would be marshaling customers away from the scene. Some of the abuse we endured by customers who didn't want to move away was awful. One bloke was actually filming on his phone, until I told him to stop!!

I sat and watched my dad die. He'd been diagnosed with cancer, not sure when. He went into hospital on the Wednesday, had tests and I was sitting with him on the Saturday, I watched him cough up blood in various stages, from brown to pink and frothy. I watched a tear roll down his face. I gave him permission to go because he didn't have to suffer any more. He died at 3.15pm
I then had to explain to my sister, In graphic detail, why she was lucky that she wasn't there. Because, you know, watching someone die is such a wonderful experience /s.
It's been 18 years.

A guide dog having its head hit by a vehicle (might have been a bus, it was in the early 80s possibly late 70s) as the dog sat on the pavement at a crossing and the dog collapsing and dying on the pavement.

It was horrible. The owner was extremely distraught as you can imagine
.

A massive woman knocking seven bells out of her husband in a country pub car park. He was a very slightly built man and he offered up no defence and he took her fists to his head and kicks to his body with complete resignation.

She was so aggressive that men circling her to try and stop her were shocked at how violent she was.

Police and ambulance were called before we fled and we helped the poor chap and learnt from his friends that it was a regular occurrence and has been going on for years. He didn't want the police involved despite his face being rearranged by her. He had missing teeth and a broken nose and possibly a broken jaw. Possible broken ribs. Just awful.

Fuck me

Seeing a poor lad, having the time of his life on his motorbike, a beautiful sunny day, overtaking cars, whizzing along, going smack into a coach that was a car in front of us. What was left of that poor young man landed next to our car. The air ambulance came but went because there were only pieces of him left. That was 30yrs ago and I still think about him.

Ok, no need to be so nasty. I feel very sorry for the OP. I hope she has gotten the help she needs to get through such a horrific ordeal, and I really hoped the abuser was locked up. But I see, sadly not from reading the other posts.

Puts things into perspective and for some it means their life is never the same again..even just by witnessing sadly

At the age of 8, I saw my 12 year old brother have a massive fit.

When I was 16, I saw a car knock down my brother (21) and run right over him, dragging his body 100 yards up the road (he obviously died)

Later, as a carer - a woman with a double prolapse (bowel and womb prolapses, both visible), a dead man (he'd died during the night, I found him in the morning)

I saw a lady that went up in flames during an incident in a bar abroad (the set the bar alight and the bottle of fluid exploded) she was running smashing into tables, trampling on small children, just totally engulfed

Not me but a work colleagues brother

From what I can gather,he'd gone out with friends to the pub

The group had broken up by closing time so brother and a friend started the walk home

They where 2 minutes from home (not 100% who's home) when another lad leapt out from behind a parked car and stabbed the friend to death in front of colleagues brother,for 'shagging my bird' (turned out he'd never said a word to this girl,shed slept with someone else but said it was this lad)

He got life but the brother really suffers with his mental health after watching his friend murdered in front of him

Worst thing I've ever heard (I didn't see her)

I was in bed-it was Christmas eve and I'd gone up early (about half 8) as I would be up at 4am

I was just dozing off when a young girls voice broke the silence

'I've been raped!please help me!'

I shot out of bed and to the front door-shed gone-i rang the police but they hadn't heard of anything happening that night,nobody had reported anything so they said I'd probably dreamt it

Few days later,in the local paper a deaf 13 year old had been raped in an park down the road to me by a group of 6 lads aged 16-18

They got off with it-it was claimed she'd consented to it (13,deaf and vulnerable-at her age she couldnt consent even if shed willingly wanted to)-judging by her voice that night,she bloody hadn't consented to anything

Oh god, some truly horrific things! I watched the ambulance on BBC iPlayer and one poor young paramedic had to go to a job where a man had jumped off a bridge and the next call was her own grandfather who was having a heart attack. She had to go on leave after that as it was too much.
I'm completely in awe of the medical profession.

So sorry. That's really sad 😢

Well you didn’t say any of that 🤷‍♀️

Boyfriend at the time (husband now) drank too much at a wedding. At a hotel. He got up at 4am to go to the bathroom and fell over. All I heard was a crash and got up in the dark to find out what happened. Almost tripped over him unconscious on the floor. Felt around in the dark until I touched bare bone. He had lacerated his head and had a big flap of skin hanging off and obviously blood everywhere.

I called an ambulance immediately then the hotel. Mean while he staggered to his feet, still drunk saying he was 'fine' trailing blood into the bathroom. Idiot. He was vomiting in the hospital and noone knew if it was the booze or concussion, had an unnecessary scan to be safe.

I had a mini break down in the ambulance from shock and I think we were both so shaken that we never drink now, it's been. 10 years. He's still got a massive horseshoe shaped scar on his crown.

Yes, still sticks with me to this day.

When I was at college, many years back, I was up late one night doing coursework when I heard a bit of a rumble out front of my house. I turned off my lamp and looked out the window to see a black vehicle partially crashed and a police cruiser side parked along the road. 5 police men got out of the cruiser and 4 went over and pulled a man and his companion out of the partially crashed black car.

1 officer took away a cellphone from one of the men and seemed to be going through it. After about a minute of looking at the phone he snapped it and stomped on it with all his strength then picked it up and put it in his pocket, all the while the other 4 officers were basically lynching the other 2 men…

They finally stopped, grabbed the men and threw them into the back of the cop pickup truck and drove off.

I was terrified for those men. They obviously had taken photos or videos of something they shouldn’t have and were chased. Two weeks later the bodies of two men fitting their descriptions were found in an abandoned lot just outside the city.

I never reported what I saw to any authority because of the country where it happened in, and because I didn’t trust that I wouldn’t be retaliated against. This was in Central America..

Two that stand out, both absolutely traumatising.

A friends baby dying, to not go too much into details, it was an awful accident that happened when we were all together, I’ll never forget the screams.

A friends horse getting shot, I held her while it was happening and had my back turned but the sound of the gun and her dropping to the ground and the nerve twitching afterwards was just awful and unfortunately a 2nd bullet had to go in.

Toss up between :

Watching DS deteriorate rapidly with Guillain Barre Syndrome
Having a sawn off shotgun pointed at my head

9 year old girl mauled by 2 alsations 40 years ago. So.e men tried to get the dogs off her. In a beer garden one warm April evening. Blood everywhere. Girl lost her arm and dogs euthanized. Still remember her screams.

London and other city centres are becoming basket cases. Used to go there quite often but not been for years and no plans to go in the future.

sprigatito · Today 13:24

My mother force-feeding my autistic little brother his own vomit while screaming at him and battering him around the head. I'll never forget the terrified look in his eyes.

God, your whole post, that's so awful and full of sympathy that you were forced to go through all that horror.

I've stopped to help at some nasty accidents, which is never pleasant.

Probably for me was being in a pub, aged 16. Two men were arguing and one smashed a bottle and plunged it into the other's throat, just a few feet away from me. The wounded man survived and the attacker was arrested nearby.

Watching my partner die from oesophagus cancer. I had to witness him screaming in pain, throwing up blood and faeces, the pain, suffering and fear he went through was just awful. He was diagnosed just 12 weeks before he died, you wouldn't wish that suffering on your worse enemy.

Didn't actually see it happen and the emergency professionals had yet to arrive ( didn't stop as other drivers already there )
On the motorway , going slow due to cars suddenly braking , got closer and saw a motor bike driver had come off his bike and you could see the partial loss of a body part.
Sadly later , heard he did not survive .

I've seen some traumatic things but the only thing worthy of a thread like this (or really that I can't forget even though my memory is a sieve) is from when I was around 15/16. I had an abusive boyfriend who was quite nasty, not a good soul. We were at a skatepark in Kensal Rise. He was doing his thing all day and I was just watching, some maybe 14 year old chubby lad was there and I was speaking to him most of the time. He was very nice. I asked him if he knew anybody with weed locally and we ended up going on about an hour long walk through London to get some. We got back to the skatepark and I was chatting to him the whole time. Towards the end of the day it was going to get dark but still daylight. A group of boys probably 11-14, maybe 6 of them? Come to the skatepark. None of them are riding. I'm not paying much attention but I noticed they were just sitting opposite us. So the young chubby lad said he was going to go, and started walking off. There was probably a 5 min walk to the main high street and the skatepark itself was under a bridge so it was quite isolated. Anyway as he walks off, they all jump up quickly behind him. Less than 10 seconds later I hear a commotion and I jump up to see where theyve gone. They're absolutely beating and kicking the shit out of this boy, stamping on his face, 6 of them, who easily could've just taken his stuff and he would've obliged. I was in shock and they carried on as I was standing 2 meters away, my ex motioning to get the fuck back to him. I went over and begged him to say something, we both went over and I think all he said was "that's enough" with a sort of agreeing face on him. They went off with his oyster card, and that was literally it. I helped the lad up and his face had been entirely rearranged. His nose was on the other side of his face and eyes so swollen he could barely see, and his forehead was a few inches protruding, covered in blood. Ears swollen. Horror show. I said we need to call an ambulance, are you okay, we walked towards the high street and my ex dragged me off and said we need to go NOW. I was young and my biggest regret to this day is leaving, I didn't call an ambulance, I didn't do anything, because I was terrified of both the boys coming back and of my ex. What truly disgusted me is we rode off on his demands leaving the boy by the main road, and we rode in a different direction to how we got there down some dirty estate. We happened to see the boys ahead. I was scared, but my ex decided to pull up and have a chat with them. What was that all about, he said, while kind of laughing like he was on their "side"...they all had a laugh as I stood back in disbelief and then we took off back home. I have stood up to people ever since in all sorts of situations almost getting stabbed once by a crckhead on a train trying to mug a young boy. But that one occasion I did nothing because of the control my ex had over me and I didn't know how to react, also scared they would turn on us. I still think about him to this day, the injuries were serious. He was walking straight after but he was truly battered to a pulp, for nothing. I will always regret doing nothing, not even calling an ambulance. Before I get judged which I do accept, I was very young in a relationship that traumatised me even to this day I bear the scars from it. But that will always stick with me. Nice young boy going to the skatepark by himself no fear, leaving with terror and probably not going out alone again for a long long time. Never saw anything on the news about it. I think about him often.

A guy being shot in the neck 10m in front of me. Bled out on the pavement before the paramedics arrived. Blood stain still on the pavement 3 days later. Not in the UK fortunately.