The explosion knocked me to the ground. I remember seeing a black storm of smoke and then nothing.

When I regained consciousness two policemen were standing over me trying to work out whether I was alive or dead.

Many others were not so lucky. At least 54 people were killed and 130 injured when two bombs ripped through a usually safe shopping district in central Baghdad yesterday evening.

I had been in Karrada shopping with a friend. It was a Thursday evening before the weekly holiday on Friday and Saturday so the streets were packed with young people, some looking at clothes, others buying food.

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The first bomb, planted in the road, exploded about 50 feet away from where I had been standing outside a mobile phone shop, waiting for my friend who had just stepped inside.

I don’t remember hearing the second blast, thought to have come from a suicide bomber, so I must have been unconscious. The first thing I recollect is asking whether my friend was all right. Fortunately he had been inside the store so was fine.

The police who found me saw that I was injured — a piece of shrapnel had embedded itself in my left arm between my shoulder and elbow. They put me into their car and took me to a nearby hospital.

The vehicle was crammed with other people who had also been hurt but I cannot remember too much about their wounds because I was still so dazed.

In the hospital a female doctor told me that I had been very lucky. Looking around the emergency room I could see scores of people, some with terrible burns. They were screaming in pain. It was an awful sight. As I was not an urgent case, the doctor said she did not have the time to take the shrapnel out of my arm but assured me that I would be fine if it stayed in because the bleeding had been stopped.

At that point my father turned up and took me to a private clinic where I had a minor operation to remove the shrapnel, which was the size of a bullet.

Sitting at home, I cannot imagine why someone planted those bombs in the street to kill so many innocent people. What did these people do to him? They were just shopping, trying to buy food for their families. What does the bomber know of his victims?

The women and men that he killed, how are their childrengoing to feel? Why does he need people to suffer? I cannot find a reason.

We were not part of Saddam Hussein’s regime. We have nothing to do with Nouri al-Maliki, the current Prime Minister, so why are we paying such a high price?

Also, if those behind this attack are able to put bombs in a place like Karrada — which is supposed to be a safe area — then what are things like in the other neighbourhoods?

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