Pictured INSIDE freezer, hostages hiding from killer
HUDDLED together for warmth amid cardboard boxes of food, these pictures show terrified shoppers hiding in a freezer during the armed siege of the Kosher deli in Paris.
One woman is seen cradling her child, while in another image a hostage sends a text message to a loved one.
Above them crazed fanatic Amedy Coulibaly was in a standoff with police, having stormed the Hyper Cacher in the Porte de Vincennes area of the city, taking 19 hostages and shooting three of them dead on the spot.
Hearing shots, shoppers at the back of the store fled downstairs to the storeroom where they huddled together in temperatures of -3C (27F). Fearing they would not escape alive, they made what they believed would be their last calls to family to tell them they loved them.
One man, known only as Ilan, was with his young son and quickly removed his jacket and wrapped him in it as they cowered in freezer for nearly five hours.
The pictures from inside the storeroom were made public as the hostages came forward to give dramatic accounts of their ordeal on Friday. Stories of incredible bravery and heroism emerged, including that of 22 year-old store worker Yohan Cohen, who was executed by Coulibaly when he tried to grab the fanatic’s gun, and Lassana Bathily who ushered the shoppers to the freezer, undoubtedly saving their lives.
Mr Bathily, a Muslim of Malian descent, guided the terrified group of men, women and at least two young children, to the walk-in freezer in the basement.
He said: ‘I turned off the lights and the fridge. I closed the door and told them to keep quiet.’ Mr Bathily then slipped away using a goods lift and was able to provide police with valuable information about what has happening inside the store.
One shopper who gave his name only as Mickael B, was making his way to the checkout when he heard a loud bang. ‘I thought it was a firecracker at first. But turning I saw a black man armed with two Kalashnikov rifles and I knew something bad was happening,’ he said.
‘I grabbed my son by the collar and fled to the back of the store. There, with other customers, we ran down a spiral staircase into the basement. We all piled into one of two cold rooms. Our door wouldn’t close. We were terrified.’
A woman, who was also in the freezer and who gave her name as Debroah, said she had gone to the deli to buy food to mark the Sabbath, as she did every Friday. ‘We hid ourselves behind cartons of children’s milk,’ she said.
‘There were two men with me – one had his three-year- old son with him – and maybe two women, also a baby. There were perhaps five or six of us. The father did everything he could to protect his son, keep him warm and also reassure the rest of us. He was the bravest of us all.’
However, Coulibaly soon discovered their whereabouts. Mickael B said: ‘ A store employee was sent down by the killer. She said he had said we were to go back up otherwise there’d be carnage. I refused to go up. By now my son, understanding nothing, was panicking. Then, minutes later, the employee comes back down with the same message. This time I decided to follow her up the spiral staircase. At the top, a man was dying in a pool of his own blood.
‘The terrorist introduced himself to us. He was strangely calm. “I am Amedy Coulibaly, Malian and Mus- lim. I belong to the Islamic State,” he told us.’
It was at this point that Mr Cohen tried to intervene. Mickael B said: ‘Suddenly [someone] tried to grab one of his guns which he’d left on the counter. It wasn’t working. The terrorist had put it there because it had blocked after the first shots,’ Mickael told Le Point magazine. ‘He turned and shot at the cus- tomer, who died on the spot.’ Mickael said he was then ordered by Coulibaly to switch on his phone and to call the media. Coulibaly spoke to French television channel BFM TV, justifying his actions and said that he was working with the Kouachi brothers, who had killed 12 at the Charlie Hebdo offices and were holding a hostage at a factory in Dammartin, 28 miles away. He also admitted he had killed the policewoman shot while on duty the previous day.
Secretly, Mickael then also called police. ‘A policeman told me that we should be ready to throw ourselves flat on the ground when the assault came, which would be soon,’ he said.
‘It was obvious that the terrorist was preparing to die. He said it was his reward. He had a weapon in each hand and boxes of cartridges nearby. He suddenly began to pray.’
It was at this point that the siege came to a dramatic conclusion and the hostages huddled in the freezer were freed. They were later pictured running from the shop, the look of horror clear to see on the face of one man as he sprinted from the scene clutching his young son.
‘I grabbed my son by the collar’