San Bernardino shooting survivors recount horror

SAN BERNARDINO, Calif. (KABC) -- As the shooting unfolded, the survivors and the families were overwhelmed with chaos and fear. Some of them shared their experiences after it was all over.

"They yelled down the hall and said, 'There's a shooting downstairs! There's a shooting downstairs!' Just heard like boom, boom shots but I didn't really hear a gun fire, the gunshots go off, but it sounded more like a big, huge thump," recalled Melinda Rivas, who was in the building when the shooting occurred.

MORE: Timeline of the San Bernardino shooting rampage

"There were 47 of us. We squeezed in our conference room, barricaded the doors, locked the doors with all the furniture in the conference room, hid behind our conference table," Rivas described.

"And somebody said, 'Hey, somebody is shooting firecrackers. That must be for our party," said another witness. "And then her friend fell to the floor."

Sean O'Connor's wife also survived the shooting and recounted the melee.

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"She's seen the gunmen running outside the window and stuff and she said that she went under her desk, underneath her desk and was told to lockdown, lock the room and stuff," O'Connor said.

A married couple identified as Syed Rizwan Farook, 28, and Tashfeen Malik, 29, opened fire during a conference and holiday luncheon for the San Bernardino County Health Department at the Inland Regional Center on Wednesday, killing 14 and injuring 17 others. The two were gunned down in an SUV a few miles away in a furious shootout with police.