At about 1:30 a.m. on January 13, I heard a violent bang that even shook our 16-story apartment house. I ran to the window and tried to see what was going on by the TV tower. A red glow flashed from the direction of the viaduct towards the tower and the building shook. I realized that they were shooting. My husband and I threw on some clothes and rushed to the tower. A lot of people were running to where they were shooting. The entire time that we were going up the stairs which led to the square around the tower there was shooting. It was really heavy. From that same side you could hear the crowd chanting “Lithuania!" Having gone over to the slope we saw a tank that was firing below in the street. Having stopped at the street barricaded by cars, buses and sand trucks, it stood there, surrounded by crowds of chanting people. I even rejoiced naively because I thought that it wouldn't drive though, that it wouldn't dare. But I soon realized that this tank that was firing deafening shots was meant only to divert our attention from the real attack. A lot of people ran over to that tank, and then someone shouted: „It's being surrounded! Run to the tower!" A column of several military vehicles and tanks with ominously glaring searchlights was slowly approaching the tower from the other side, along the wire fence that surrounded the tower. Once the tower was surrounded, several signal flares were fired in the air. There was a tank standing in front of us, and a number of people, mostly young men, had already run over. The tank lid opened and the head of a soldier appeared. People chanted: “Fascists! Shame!" Something was thrown from the tank at the people who were standing by the tower. They were probably explosives. You could hear sub-machine guns firing. But the people didn't withdraw. Then the tank lid closed and it was like a terrible sound had hit me over the head. When I came round I tried to figure out what had happened. It turned out that the tank standing in front of us had opened fire. The soldier came out once more. The human chain had already been broken because the first-floor windows had shattered. You could hear individual shots as well as series of sub-machine gun fire. Powerful searchlights lit up the people and the neighbor-ing buildings. None of the people ran or complained. There wasn't any panic. A row of people had formed by the hole in the fence, but they moved to make way for an injured person. All around you could hear shouting: “Ambulance! Doctor!" Once we returned home we could still hear tanks and guns shooting for a long time, and we could still see red tracer bullets over our 16-story building.
Lithuania, 1991.01.13 : documents, testimonies, comments. - Vilnius : State Publishing Center, 1992, p. 222.