Paris terror: How a stranger rescued a pregnant woman as she clung for life

Soon after armed men stormed into the Bataclan concert hall in central Paris, killing over 80 people, a young woman was spotted clinging to an open window of the three-storey building, screaming for help.

Journalist Daniel Psenny, who lived across the Bataclan, videotaped the entire incident as he saw four masked armed militants with AK-47s march into the concert hall where over a 1,000 people were present to see rock band Eagles of Death Metal perform.

The footage of Paris's night of terror went viral as the woman was heard shouting, "Help, help, I’m pregnant, catch me if I fall," as other concert-goers fled the venue, some dragging the injured out.

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While others ran through the streets in a state of panic, a stranger, Sébastien, went back inside the hall and pulled the woman back through the window, moments before she lost her grip.

Sébastien, who refused to disclose his surname, said, “There were two windows in front of me,” she was dangling from one of them, begging people below for help if she jumped. It was chaos down there as well. I climbed out through the other window and held on to an air vent 15 metres from the ground. I held on for five minutes and then the pregnant woman, who couldn’t cling to the window-sill any longer, asked me to help her get back inside.”

Speaking to La Province, the rescuer said, "She was begging people down below to catch her if she jumped. But it was chaos down there. We were 15 metres above the ground. I don't know where she went afterwards."

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Following messages of thanks which the pregnant woman sent her rescuer through a friend, the two were reunited on Monday. Meanwhile, her friend, Frans Torreele said that both the mother and the unborn baby are "safe and sound". But Torreele added, "She needs to rest and doesn’t want to say anything else about what happened for now.”

According to Sébastien, after saving the woman, he went back out and clung from the air vent above the windows, “It wasn’t the best hiding-place,” he said. “Five minutes later, I felt the barrel of a Kalashnikov against my leg. One of the terrorists said: ‘Come down from there! Come inside and lie down on the floor!’”

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He witnessed gunmen firing at people from the balcony of the Bataclan and as Sébastien and other hostages heard them scream, he stated, "The terrorists said to us: ‘Do you hear the cries, the suffering? It’s to make you feel the fear that people have to suffer every day in Syria. It’s war! And it’s only the beginning. We’ll massacre innocents. We want you to repeat that to those around you'."

Sébastien recounted to La Provence how the attackers ordered hostages to phone French TV channels.

“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," he said.


"They took out a wad of 50-euro notes and I had to burn them. They spoke French to each other."

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Regardless of the threats, he claimed the terrorists did not have the kind of equipment to blow up the venue.

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 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.

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"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.”

Sébastien's account came after the pregnant woman's friend, Torreele tweeted on Sunday evening, in an attempt to trace the rescuer.

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It was retweeted more than 1,800 times before Sébastien’s brother responded by email.

According to Torreele, “She wanted to thank everyone who helped her, especially the man who gave her a hand and helped her climb back up,” he said.

He said she was saved by “a series of small gestures, small kindnesses, and at that time of total madness, those tiny gestures accomplished great things. You can hardly imagine how much an outstretched hand, a hand on the shoulder, helped to save people. These people need to thank each other, to hug each other.”

This article originally appeared on The Telegraph