Chicago Area Women Were Caught In The Middle Of Terror Attack In Nice

(CBS) -- A group of Chicago area friends traveling in Nice were caught in the middle of the violence there.

CBS 2's Vince Gerasole spoke to them via Facetime as they told him their survival story.

"We literally ran for our live," Aga Olcha of Bartlett says.

Just seconds earlier, they were three friends snapping a selfie -- all smiles, at Bastille Day near Nice's promenade.

"People started screaming, and they started running toward us, and I saw a woman's face, and it looked like the world was ending," Olcha says.

As the attacker rammed his truck into the crowds along the seaside, people began running for safety.

Karolina Lesniewska of Bloomingdale says things changed in an instant.

"It was a split second. It was crazy," she says.

They were a group of Chicago area girlfriends on a European adventure, caught in the thick of it.

"We see this huge crowd of maybe thousands of people charging at us," Lesniewska says.

"Like the end of the world was happening: People were climbing over each other, running as fast as they could," Nicolette Pajda of Niles says.

The women do not speak French. They didn't know what was happening, but they knew to seek cover, hurrying to a restaurant and barricading themselves in the bathroom.

"We hid with eight other people. It was very claustrophobic. The waitress fainted. There were kids there, it was very traumatizing," Pajda says.

An hour passed before workers told them it was safe to leave. Up to that point, they were six Chicago area women, mothers and daughters, on a grand European tour. Now, they are doing their best to cope.

Everyone is safe now in the apartment they are renting. They are preparing to return to Chicago on Saturday.