Azovstal is the only area in the port city of Mariupol that is not occupied by Russia.

The underground bunkers and tunnels in the facility built during the Soviet era are designed to withstand an attack.

- We have had exercises and the management has said that there are shelters, if something should happen.

Natalia Usmanova tells Reuters that from the beginning there were about 50 people in the bunker where she and her husband were sitting.

Some left the bunker, but when she and her husband wanted to leave, the security situation had deteriorated and they were forced to stay.

- There were massive attacks and they struck near us several times.

In the bunker it was dark and bad with oxygen.

- At the exit, at the top, there were steps where you could breathe because there was not enough oxygen.

But I was too scared to go out and breathe. 

Natalia Usmanova is now one of the first people to be evacuated from the steelworks in a relief effort coordinated by the UN and the Red Cross.