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Mother Kellie Atkins, 44, described the "nightmare" scenes as she saw the ball of fire hurtling towards her while she picnicked near the busy A27 dual carriageway in West Sussex, at the same time an Hawker Hunter plane crashed on the road - killing up to 20 people.

Mrs Atkins was just about to tuck in to her sandwiches with her daughters Ashley, 20, and Abbie, 17, along with Ashley's boyfriend Imran Khan.

The group were sat on folding chairs as the Hawker Hunter ploughed towards them.

She said: "One moment I was biting into a sandwich, the next I was covered in blood in hell — there is no other way to describe it.”

Mrs Atkins suffered burns to her back and legs as she ran for her life.

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Rescuers clear the strewn wreckage

One moment I was biting into a sandwich, the next I was covered in blood in hell - there is no other way to describe it

Kellie Atkinson

The hairdresser from West Sussex told The Sun: "I felt the skin on my back burning as I ran. I was sure the fireball was going to catch me.

"I was sure I was going to die, but somehow I lived while people standing 10ft from me died.

"It was a miracle. It was only later I realised I was covered in blood from the victims.

"I will be having nightmares about this for years. And I don't want anyone else to see the things I saw."

Mrs Atkins' eldest daughter Ashley recalled the horror moment she saw a mother "scooping up her baby with the fireball closing in on them".

She added: "They survived but when she went back the baby’s pushchair was covered with blood and she was retching as she cleaned it off."

The car park administration assistant also revealed the family had thought about changing their viewing point just minutes before the tragedy.

She said: "If we had changed places we would be among the dead - that’s how close we came."

Her younger sister and A-level student Abbie has been unable to sleep since the incident, and described how "it was like living through a horror film".

Mr Khan, a car hire firm driver, spoke of the moment he saw a man drenched from "head to foot in blood".

He added: "He wasn’t injured because none of the blood was his.

"He just stood there shaking his head surrounding by bodies and debris saying, ‘It’s not mine’.

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Limo driver Maurice Abrahams is believed to be among the dead

“Another man was walking around with a terrible eye injury but was so shocked he didn’t realise how badly hurt he was.”

The family later returned to the scene, where they found a badly-burned victim disorientated and wandering in the debris.

Mrs Atkins, who said she "couldn't cope with what she was seeing", added: “Wreckage was smoking, the earth was scorched and burnt-out cars were in the middle of it all.

“A man covered in blood was standing in the road shaking saying, ‘What happened? What shall I do?’. Then as I got nearer to him I realised that all the skin had been blasted off one side of his face."