As a Red Cross volunteer, I saw the atrocities of the Mumbai attacks firsthand. I’m proud to help people in crisis

I have been able to support people after the Boxing Day tsunami, the London bombings and the tragic fire at Grenfell. I hope that the support I’ve provided makes it a little easier for people to deal with what’s happened to them in the long term

I remember getting the call very clearly. It was around 10pm on the 28 November 2008, and I was at home in Surrey. We were preparing for a big Christmas that year with my mother-in-law turning 90 and the American side of the family coming to visit.

I was writing my Christmas letters when my husband burst into the room to tell me he’d seen the horrific attacks in Mumbai on the news. I'm a Red Cross volunteer and from that moment I was anticipating a call.

At midnight, I scribbled “gone to Mumbai” on a note to my daughter, and by 6am our team had left the UK, arriving in Mumbai the following evening.

Other Red Cross staff and I sped through the silent roadblocks in our marked car. The attacks were still unfolding and the city was in lock down.

I remember the stillness, a real contrast in a city that is usually teeming with traffic and people everywhere. The severity and terror of what was unfolding struck me – I could feel the uncertainty and anxiety in the air.

A rest centre had been set up at the British Council Library and the next morning I started meeting the survivors who had been trapped in the Taj Hotel and other locations around the city. Many of them were utterly terrified and traumatised.

My role is to listen. We give people the emotional space to talk to about their experiences, offering the support and practical help they need.

Helping people to understand how they are feeling after a traumatic experience is very important. Whilst understanding that everyone is different, explaining the types of feelings and emotions they might go through can be really reassuring for people.

As well as having to deal with what was happening around them, people at the Taj Hotel told me how they were also trying to care for the badly injured, yet there was absolutely no way to help them.

Others had come face to face with the gunmen, and had seen them shooting or throwing hand grenades.

There were also fires, so people had feared that they would be burned or die from smoke inhalation. I heard how some people were so terrified they tied sheets and curtains together to escape down the outside of the hotel.

The new film Hotel Mumbai, featuring British Red Cross ambassador Jason Isaacs, testifies to the heroism of the hotel’s staff, who stayed to protect their guests.

I also heard moving stories of their bravery. A couple had been on their way to dinner and were in the lobby when people ran in, shouting that people had been injured.

The woman told me how she had become separated from her husband and ran into the bookstore, and at the back of it there was a mirrored door and hidden cupboard. She was in there for several hours with other adults and a child, and she taught them Buddhist chants to keep them as calm as possible amidst the echoes of ammunition.

When it was safe, the man who ran the bookstore let them out. They fled through the kitchens, through hallways and underground tunnels, and as they left hotel staff lined the way and touched them on the shoulders as their passed through – to provide comfort and reassurance.

A woman told me after she’d escaped from the hotel that she was picked up by two Japanese tourists in a taxi outside and they took her around the hospitals, searching for her injured husband. The couple were eventually reunited.

During times like these, these small acts of kindness can make such a huge difference.

I feel privileged to be able to be there help people in the aftermath of crises like this.

I have been able to support people after the Boxing Day tsunami, the London bombings and the tragic fire at Grenfell. I hope that the support I’ve provided makes it a little easier for people to deal with what’s happened to them in the long term.

Briony Thomas is a psychosocial support volunteer for the Red Cross, supporting the Foreign and Commonwealth Office when British people and other nationals are affected by major events

Visit the British Red Cross redcross.org.uk to find out more about the many ways they support people in crisis