‘Lady in red’ reveals how she survived festival hell

She became known as the lady in red – one of the most hauntingly iconic images from the October 7 massacre.

A young woman running for her life from twisted hamas gunmen targeting the Nova festival in the early hours, slaughtering at least 340 and taking 40 people hostage.

For weeks the world wondered if she made it. Now she has been found and, for the first time, Vlada Patapov, 25 – a Ukrainian-born mother of one – tells her story.

Sitting on a bench by the sea at Ashdod close to where she works as a wedding planner, Vlada tearily recounted her nightmare.

‘Sometimes I feel guilty’

She said: ‘I sometimes feel guilty that I survived, and that others didn’t make it and what happened to me only lasted maybe 18 hours but for many the pain is still going on. I think about the hostages still in Gaza. We must not forget them.

‘The strange thing is I didn’t want to go to the festival. It was just a lastminute thing. Matan got some tickets, and we went with a friend, but I had a feeling something wasn’t right when we left on the Friday afternoon.

‘[Three-year-old daughter] Romi was so quiet, she is usually always noisy – but that day she was still, and I’m sure now she knew something terrible was going to happen.’

After arriving at Re’im, a mile and half from the border with Gaza, Vlada, Matan and her friend Mai set up camp. She said: ‘The atmosphere was very strange, people were having fun and dancing but for me there was no energy, and I didn’t dance around as much as I usually do.

‘It got to around 3am and I laid out on the mat to sleep. I did think at the time it was weird to have a festival so close to the border with Gaza and rockets come over every now and then, but I thought the organisers must think it’s safe or they wouldn’t hold it.’

But that was not to be the case. An air raid alarm app on her phone woke her. ‘I looked for Matan and Mai and I immediately heard shooting. It was loud and very close to us. For a few seconds I didn’t know what was happening and then Matan screamed that we had to run for the car.

‘Missiles started coming over and the place just went crazy, the announcer said for everyone to evacuate and people just started running for their cars. It was just a music festival, it was peaceful, people were dancing and they came and murdered people, some of my friends, and for what?’

Racing for her car, the trio jumped inside and sped for the exit but their way was blocked. Vlada said: ‘everyone was honking their horns, I was in the passenger seat and Matan was driving with Mai in the back and then we saw a man ahead of us dressed in military uniform.

‘We thought it was an Israeli soldier and we would be OK, then a guy a few cars in front got out and the soldier, who I know now was a

terrorist, shot him. We crouched low, and bullets started hitting the cars but, I don’t know how, we didn’t seem to be hit, and Matan managed to reverse us away to try and get out the other side. He carried on driving, but we didn’t get far and then we saw terrorists on cars, bikes and trucks heading towards us shooting.

‘We tried to drive across the field but we got stuck so we all got out and started running for our lives. This was where I got split from Matan. I started running with Mai and we got to some trees and we were both crying. All I could think of was Romi. I kept seeing her face and said someone has to survive for her.

‘So Mai and I started running, and that’s when you see me in the video get into the car of my angel, a man called Yosef Ben Avu, he stopped and told us to get in and we did, all the time while shooting was going on.

‘I called Matan and told him I was OK and he said he had been picked up as well and he was safe. The whole thing had lasted three hours but it went by so quickly. The longest part was waiting at the base before I could be picked up and go home and see Romi, and I gave her the biggest hug ever.’

‘I kept seeing my child’s face’