A CRPF jawan who survived the Maoist massacre yesterday in Chhattisgarh's Sukma said there was sudden firing "from all sides" and soldiers barely had time to shield civilian workers from the line of fire. "It was hard to tell how many Maoists were there," said Mahendra Kumar, who is recovering after surgery in a hospital in Raipur, where he was brought by an Indian Air Force chopper from Sukma, 400 km away.