Paris attacks: terror inside Le Bataclan concert hall as gunmen open fire
Date
November 14, 2015 - 1:06PM
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Megan Levy
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Paris attacks: What we know so far
The worst terrorist attack in French history is unfolding as a co-ordinated series of attacks across Paris. This is what we know so far.
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Benjamin Cazenoves was one of hundreds of music fans who had filed into the popular Paris concert hall Le Bataclan on Friday night for a sold-out show to see US rock band Eagles of Death Metal.
A short time later, he was holed up on the first floor of the venue, badly injured, and posting news in real time of the unimaginable terror that was unfolding around him.
French fire brigade members aid an injured individual near the Bataclan concert hall following fatal shootings in Paris on Friday.
French fire brigade members aid an injured individual near the Bataclan concert hall following fatal shootings in Paris on Friday. Photo: Reuters
"Carnage .... Dead bodies everywhere," the Paris resident wrote in a series of posts on his Facebook page, as gunmen unleashed an attack on the concert hall about 9.30pm, local time.
The gunmen had taken an estimated 100 people hostage in the venue in eastern Paris, near an area of the city known for its nightlife.
The gunmen were mowing down the concert goers one by one, wrote Cazenoves. He believed they were heading towards him, and pleaded for someone to help.
The Bataclan concert hall in central Paris. Photo: AP
"They are cutting down all the world. One by one. 1th floor soon!!!!" he wrote.
About 1000 people were attending the concert in the relatively small venue when the attack occurred, one of four apparently coordinated attacks around Paris.
Julien Pearce, a radio reporter in France who also was also the concert, told CNN that he saw a number of young men dressed in black open fire on the crowd with assault rifles, firing at random as people screamed.
"It was a bloodbath," he said, adding that he saw at least 20 bodies.
"Some were dead. Others were very badly wounded," he said.
"It lasted for 10 minutes. Ten horrific minutes where everybody was on the floor covering their head."
Pearce saw two people he called terrorists enter the concert hall, "very calm, very determined", and firing "randomly".
He told CNN that the men wore black clothing but no masks. Pearce saw the face of one shooter, who he estimated was no more than 25 years old.
"He was like a random guy holding a Kalashnikov. That's all," he said.
A witness quoted by BFM television said he heard rounds of automatic rifle fire and someone shouting "Allahu akbar!" at Le Bataclan, the New York Times reported.
Other witnesses reported six to eight hostage-takers in the concert hall, looking for people hiding inside. A series of gunshots and explosions was heard from inside the concert hall at one point.
Late on Friday night, local time, French police stormed the concert hall. Police said two terrorist suspects had been killed in the raid and that at least 40 concertgoers were dead. Other reports said the death toll at the concert hall may be as high as 100.
Le Bataclan's ground floor is shaped like a horseshoe, and can either have seating or standing room, depending on the act.
There is also an upper tier that runs around the curved edges of the horseshoe, which is where Cazenoves was believed to be hiding when he posted on Facebook. Friends later posted on Facebook that Cazenoves had escaped the theatre alive.
Eagles of Death Metal in a blues-influenced rock band with California roots, formed by friends Jesse Hughes, 43, and Josh Homme, 42. Homme also fronts another rock band, Queens of the Stone Age.
Despite its name, Eagles of Death Metal is not a death metal band. The name was chosen ironically, as the band members imagined a cross between death rockers and the American band The Eagles.
Mary Lou Dorio, the mother of Julian Dorio, the drummer for Eagles of Death Metal, told the Washington Post that her son and other band members managed to escape Le Bataclan when the attack began. Homme was not performing at the event. However, the fate of several crew members remained unknown, she said.
"It was awful," she said, adding that her son was at a local police station, where he was able to call his wife.
The shootings occurred near the former headquarters of Charlie Hebdo, the satirical newspaper where shootings by Islamic militants traumatised France in January.
Read more:
http://www.smh.com.au/world/paris-attac ... z3rQqfDsvb
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