How hero saved pregnant girl from plunging 50ft to her death
THE pregnant woman dangling from a ledge as gunmen slaughtered hostages inside the Bataclan theatre was one of the most horrifying images of the Paris attacks. Now a young Frenchman, known only as Sebastian, has told how he pulled the woman back through the window to stop her falling to her death – as three Islamic State terrorists roamed the venue’s corridors picking off targets.
He described how he had climbed out of another window and hung on to an air vent when he noticed the terrified woman dangling 50ft above the ground, screaming: ‘Help me, I’m pregnant’.
‘She was begging people down below if they would catch her if she jumped,’ Sebastian said. ‘But it was chaos down there. We were 15 metres above the ground.
‘I held on for five minutes and then the pregnant woman, who was exhausted, begged me to help her get back inside. That’s what I did. I don’t know where she went afterwards but I went back to my old hiding place which wasn’t great.
‘Five minutes later I felt the barrel of a Kalashnikov against my leg and a terrorist yelling, “Get down from there ... Lie on the ground”.’
Sebastian said he reached the woman just in time to stop her losing her grip. She is understood to have survived the atrocities on Friday night along with her unborn child, but her identity has not been made public.
Recounting how the shooting began midway through the Eagles of Death Metal concert, Sebastian said he and fellow fans first assumed that the noise was some kind of special effect.
‘Then when the second shot was fired, we understood,’ he said. ‘The lights came on and I turned to the entrance and saw two or three guys armed with Kalashnikovs.
‘They were shooting at anyone they met. Those in the bar went down first. Everyone fell to the ground. I saw a guy next to me take a bullet in the head.
‘Word spread that there was an exit behind the stage. I crawled closer to it. I had to crawl over dead bodies, wounded people, my clothes were full of blood.
‘I took advantage of one guy reloading to escape behind the stage. On the left there was no emergency exit so I crossed and hid behind a black curtain and got to the other side.
‘There was no exit there either. I climbed the stairs but they led on to the balcony of the concert hall.
‘That’s when I went to the windows and saw her.’ After helping the woman back into the building, Sebastian said he was ordered to lie face down on the ground as he heard the screams of others apparently being tortured.
‘They told us, “We’re here to make you go through what the innocent are suffering in Syria.
‘You hear the cries of suffering? Now you feel the fear that people go through every day in Syria. It’s war. And that’s just the beginning.
‘We will massacre the innocent. We want you to tell everybody”.’
Sebastian said the attackers wanted media attention to spread their toxic brand of extremist Islam. He also described how they forced him to burn cash in an apparent protest against western capitalism.
He told the newspaper La Provence: ‘They wanted to talk to reporters. They asked, for some reason, if money was
‘Had to crawl over dead bodies’ ‘I went through all the emotions’
important to me and took out a wad of 50 euro notes and made me burn them. They spoke French to one another ... One was Algerianlooking with blue eyes.
‘Then they wanted to talk to the police. They put us against the windows and I had to shout to them to stay away.
‘They said they had explosive belts and if the police approached they would blow us all up. They didn’t seem organised and spoke to a negotiator via a hostage’s mobile phone.’
The group then issued a chilling threat to kill a hostage every five minutes and throw bodies out of the window – an announcement which may have prompted the rapid and successful storming of the venue by police.
‘I think the negotiator managed to organise that we would come out and then we waited,’ Sebastian said. ‘Those minutes were the longest of my life.
‘I went through all the emotions including hope, and finally the acceptance of death, even if I closed my eyes not to see the Kalashnikov pointed in my direction.
‘The terrorists had placed two human shields on doors but the security services managed to burst in without touching them.
‘They used a battering ram and threw a stun grenade. When I saw a second one fall at my feet I told myself it was time to flee.
‘I ran. The grenade exploded and threw me under the ram as the forces came through.
‘I was trampled on but it was the happiest day of my life. I was saved.’