A brave man lay on top of his girlfriend in the midst of the Paris theatre massacre – and saved her life.
Michael O'Connor, 30, thought he was
'going to die' amid the carnage of the Bataclan concert shooting in
which 80 lost their lives.
He described in graphic detail how he watched two IS gunmen enter the venue on Friday night.
They ordered everyone to lie down before
shooting indiscriminately at the helpless victims with automatic
weapons, emptying their magazines before re-loading and firing all over
again.
Michael, of South Shields, South Tyneside, told his girlfriend French Sara Badel Craeye 'I love you' as he prepared to die.
But she defiantly answered: "We will not die in here.
Michael, who was watching the Eagles of Death Metal concert in Paris, told the BBC:
“There
were two young people who came from the back of the arena.The started
to open fire with what looked like AK 47s. There was one who I could
see, I got a look at his face, but I did not see the other one.One of
them looked young, but it was a blur really.
“I
grabbed my girlfriend and pulled her down to protect her. We tried to
make the exit, but there was a crush and you could not get out.“They
fired from an automatic weapon and people fell all over the place.“They
were running and pushing to get out – the place was full, it was a sell
out.
“A
few people dropped onto the ground around me and they were screaming and
shouting, I did not hear the gunmen say anything or make any demands,
they just fired indiscriminately into the crowds and once the place
emptied a bit everyone got back up and tired to make a dash for the
exits but then they re-loaded and started to fire again.“It was
unbelievable.”
Michael spotted an exit at the side of
the stage but when he tried to make a push for it he could not get past
the people desperately climbing over him.
“There
were people climbing all over me and I thought that if they fired again
we would get hit so I pulled my girlfriend under me and lay on top of
her.
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"She had someone on her head and another person was on my legs, it was a real squash.
“There
was a girl on my right side and two men on the other side and next to
my girlfriend there was another girl, and behind me there were other
people who were conscious but terribly injured but still stay quiet.
“Many people were wounded all around us, but there were also people who were obviously dead.
“I
thought I was going to die, I could not see out properly but they were
firing from the balcony above us so I guess I thought 'they are going to
shoot us' so I told my girlfriend I loved her.
“What else can you do in that situation? I expected to die, and I waited.”
They then found themselves playing dead in an effort to save themselves.I thought 'if we move we are going to be killed'."
They heard one of the gunmen state, in
French, that he was 'here because of your President Francois Hollande' -
an apparent reference to the French military support of attacks on IS
in Syria.He saw one of the IS gunmen nearby, spraying bullets all around
them.
Michael recalled:
"He
(the gunman) was looking at the exit but the gunfire sounded incredibly
close. I could hear gunfire up in the balcony, I think they must have
been killing people up there as well.That was one of the eerier parts.
You could hear someone methodically reloading his gun so he could start
firing at us again."I could see the entrance of the arena and there were
just bodies strewn all over the place. I could see slightly up onto the
balcony, but there was nothing above me at that point.
"We
lay there for maybe an hour an and 15 minutes until the police stormed
the building. One of the gunmen said in French in a French accent - I am
assuming he was a French national - "if we are here it is because of
your President Francois Hollande".
"I'm assuming he was talking about Syria and what is going on over there."
He
went on: "I could see the door behind us, it slowly opened I didn't know
what was coming through. I saw torches and big flashlights. It was so
eerie, you could hear the amp in the background.
"When
I saw the torches it was then that I thought 'we actually might survive
this'. They came in and were behind big bullet proof shields, they were
motioning for us to stay still.
"They
formed a perimeter at the back of the hall and pointed their guns up to
the balcony where the terrorists still were. Eventually the police told
us to wave our arms if we still could and let them know who was alive.
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