More from Photographer of Bhutto Hit: "I Was Splattered with Blood"

By: Daryl Lang, Photo District News Getty Images senior staff photographer John Moore witnessed the chaotic attack that claimed the life of Pakastini political leader Benazir Bhutto Thursday. Moore was just 20 yards away from the suicide bomb that killed more than 20 people.

"I was splattered with quite a bit of blood on my shirt and face. I didn't know that until I got home and was informed by my family," Moore said Friday. "Very fortunately for me, none of it was mine."

Moore spoke to PDN Friday from southern Pakistan, having flown there earlier in the day from Islamabad, where he is based.

On Thursday, Moore covered the political rally in Rawalpindi where Bhutto addressed a large crowd, delivering the last speech she would ever give. With the event over and daylight fading, Moore and most of the other news media began to leave.

"I sort of turned around and saw her come out of the grounds standing through the sunroof of her car and waving to the crowd, much to my surprise. So I ran back and got close to get some pictures," Moore said.

"The crowd was pushing in tight. They all wanted to touch the vehicle and get as close to her as they could. And she wanted to get close to the people," Moore said. Moore shot a few pictures from in front of the vehicle and ran about 20 yards ahead. Then, chaos.

"I heard a number of gunshots. She fell down through the sunroof of the car. And within a second the blast went off. So it was all very quick and chaotic. People were fleeing the scene. There was debris flying through the air. Pieces of vehicle, pieces of human flesh, smoke. It was mayhem, as these situations are," Moore said.

It is still unclear exactly what killed Bhutto, with news reports Friday saying she died from an impact to her head sustained when she fell into the car. Moore said he could not tell if any of the shots hit her.

"When I heard the shots, I heard three cracking sounds," Moore said. "There's been talk about a possible sniper. I did not hear any sort of rifle shots in the distance-type sounds. What I heard was shots that sounded like they were coming from the direction of the vehicle, which would be consistent with the theory that the suicide bomber was also the gunman. I say that without any expertise, but that was my sense from being there."

Moore immediately turned on his camera's high-speed shutter and began shooting without focusing. His camera captured the fireball from the explosion, debris in the air, and people panicking.

"It was a reflex probably more than anything," Moore said. "That was the easy part. The more difficult decision is whether to flee the scene or whether to stay and keep working. And I chose to stay."

The street was strewn with bodies and body parts. Stunned survivors wandered about in distress. One man in particular stood out to Moore and other photographers on the scene. Dressed in a brown coat and crying in anguish, the man surveyed the scene and cast his arms up into the air. Moore's pictures of the crying man ran as the lead art on many newspaper front pages Friday, including The New York Times, The Chicago Tribune and The Los Angeles Times. (Other papers, including The Washington Post, USA Today and the International Herald Tribune, led with a photo of the same man by Associated Press photographer B.K. Bangash.)

Moore said the crying man was aware he was being photographed and did not turn away, but was in no shape to speak to the media.

"I'm sure he saw us there photographing, but that was the furthest worry from his mind.... He was really destroyed emotionally," Moore said.

Some of Moore's images from the scene show mutilated bodies in more graphic detail than what most U.S. media usually publish.

"It's very hard to show the scene and do it in a way that's usable in the media. The gore factor is so high it's very difficult to photograph," Moore said.

When it was all over, Moore had about 1,200 shots from the entire day. To get his images to Getty as quickly as possible, he filed a quick edit of photos from the blast scene. Then he did a second edit and filed more, including shots of Bhutto speaking and more images from the explosion.

Moore said no one from the government has contacted him about whether his images might be useful in an investigation. "The investigations here on these types of attacks in Pakistan are hardly the forensic type of investigations you'd expect in the West. It's by no means thorough," he says.

Moore said it was no surprise that violence broke out at the event.

"This wasn't a surprise. I really did think there was a high chance there would be some violence at this event, specifically because it was such a public event and it had been announced ahead of time," Moore said.

Moore also covered the rally in Karachi in October where a suicide bomb went off near Bhutto's vehicle. But he had already gone to file his photos and was not present for the explosion.

"Getty had no imagery from the actual suicide blast in Karachi in October, and to the credit of our editors in London and New York, no one ever questioned that and none of the editors ever expressed any displeasure about us not being there when the bomb went off," Moore said. "Because you have to be careful what you ask for in this business. Being present at a suicide bombing is nothing that any of us would want."

Moore moved to Islamabad with his family 2 1/2 years ago, considering it a quiet city from which he could travel easily to other hotspots in the region like Iraq and Afghanistan.

"It's sad to me that the country I'm living in has gone down so quickly," he says. "And who knows what's going to happen here."