What did I say? So much for “highly trained and organised”.
From an interview in The Telegraph with one of the people who was at the Bataclan on Friday night:
Speaking to La Provence newspaper in the south of France, Sébastien told how the gunmen were telling hostages to phone French TV channels.
He said: “They wanted to speak to journalists. But we didn’t get through to anyone. At one point, they asked me for a light and they wanted to know if money was important to me.
“They took out a wad of 50-euro notes and I had to burn them. They spoke French to each other.”
He claimed the terrorists were not equipped to blow up the venue – despite their threats.
Sébastien added: “They ordered us to say they had suicide belts and if the police came in, they would blow everything up. But it was a lie. I saw only Kalashnikovs, one of which was stuck together with black tape, and a bag with ammunition.
“They didn’t seem very organised. They spoke to a negotiator on a hostage’s mobile. They had only one demand: that the security forces withdraw.
“They threatened to kill one of us every five minutes and to throw the bodies out of the window. The negotiator got them to agree to let firemen in to take out the injured. Then we waited. Those were the longest minutes of my life.
“I went from hope to feeling resigned to death. I closed my eyes so I couldn’t see the Kalashnikov pointed at me. The terrorists had put two hostages as human shields near the doors. The Raid (elite French police unit) managed to shoot past them without hitting them.
“Then they smashed the door in with a battering ram and threw a stun grenade. When I saw a second stun grenade land near my feet, I knew it was time to flee.
“I ran, the grenade exploded and the blast propelled me under the battering ram. All the Raid members went over the top. I was trampled but it was the happiest pain of my life. I was protected. I was alive.”
