'We want to return to Italia as soon as possible'. The cry for help of Martina, high school student stranded in Dubai

In the meantime, communication on Whatsapp is spotty, but she continues: 'We did not expect something so serious, we thought we could leave the next day. Then the news became more alarming; we learned of bombings in Emirati and in Doha and also in Dubai; we started to panic. And it was total panic'.

At that point what did you do?

"We didn't know where we were going to stay, the hotel was too expensive to stay there; they divided us into two groups and we were placed in other hotels, I am at the Movenpick Grand, Al Bustan Dubai - Martina continues - we are among friends, only one of our companions is alone in another hotel. At night we were initially in the room, then they sent us the alarm on the phone. They advised us to stay away from the windows and not to go outside. With our friends, my roommates and I locked ourselves in the bathroom, covering the cracks in the door with a towel so that no light could get in. That's what they asked us to do initially. Then they made us move, there were six of us locked in the toilet. Then we all went down to the hotel lobby with the group, as requested by the tutors, and they took us to a windowless space in the basement. There we spent an hour. Then a security guard arrived and asked us to leave. The guard came back shortly afterwards and told us that we had to go back to the lobby and we spent part of the night there. They tried to send us away, but we refused to go back to the room as it was all 'windowed' and we were afraid of exposing ourselves to danger. In the middle of the night the tutors, in the general confusion, woke us up for a bomb scare. They told us about a drone. From there they took us back to the basement. Outside, everything was dark. I was in complete panic and the atmosphere was one of fear for everyone, only a few weren't crying, we were all worried, we couldn't keep calm. Now we are locked in the room, they told us that initially at least one person had to be in the room because they would disable the electronic keys. We do not understand the real reason.

Does anyone among you need life-saving drugs?

"Not between us, but we would at least like to have medication to help us control our anxiety, in my case and not only...we are very worried and so are our families. Farnesina has spoken to our tutors who are also in constant contact with the Embassy and the Consulate. Some tutors are also very scared. Our hope and request is to return to Italia as soon as possible. We are just over two hundred kids and we want to go home!".