Brussels bombings: Survivor of Boston and Paris attacks 'seriously' injured in airport explosion
'Hopefully he's run his lifelong odds and we're done'
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An American Mormon missionary has been injured in the Brussels attacks - after surviving bombings in both Boston and Paris.
Mason Wells, 19, from Utah was feet away from an explosion at the Belgian Zaventem airport on Tuesday, one of three attacks across the city which killed at least 31 people and left more than 100 injured.
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints member suffered a severed Achilles tendon, a gash to the head, shrapnel injuries and severe burns while in the departure area of the airport.
Mr Wells was also very near to the Boston Marathon bombing in April 2013. He was watching his mother run the race with his father and they both felt the ground shake when a pressure-cooker bomb exploded just a block away from them.
“It’s incredible he’d be so close to more than one of these," Bishop Scott Bond of the Latter Day Saints Church in Sandy, Utah, told The New York Daily News.
“I think any of us would be seriously shaken, but I think he’s someone who could handle this better than anybody. He’s the kind of young man to somehow turn this into a positive,” he added.
Mr Wells was also in Paris at the time of the attacks in November, but was in a different part of the city and was not injured.
His father Chad Wells, said he woke up to the latest news on the TV before calling his son's mission president in France and found out his son was injured but alive.
They finally spoke to him more than eight hours later - and said he was groggy and exhausted after surgery.
“This is his third terrorist attack,” his father told ABC News.
"Hopefully he's run his lifelong odds and we're done," he added.
Chris Lambson, a friend of the Wells family, said he thinks divine interventions have helped the young man survive in the face of such extraordinary circumstances.
Other Mormon missionaries at the Brussels airport were also injured. Richard Norby, 66 and 20 year-old Joseph Empey needed hospital treatment after the blasts.
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints instructed others in the France Paris Mission to stay in their homes, though mission President Frederic J. Babin said the missionaries will still continuing working in their mission to preach the gospel.
The former high school football and lacrosse player had four months left on his two-year Mormon mission, and was planning to major in engineering at the University of Utah.
Isis have claimed responsibility for the attacks in Brussels Airport and the Maalbeek Metro station.
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