Pregnant girl who clung on for life amid Paris terror attacks ‘now has beautiful baby and I saved them’, reveals hero Sebastien
THE image is one of the most enduring of the Paris terror attacks, which happened a year ago today.
It shows a man leaning out of a window at the Bataclan theatre, trying to rescue a pregnant woman dangling from its ledge. Behind him, Islamic State gunmen were slaughtering 89 music fans, part of co-ordinated attacks across the French capital which left 130 dead.
Sebastien has since formed an incredible bond with the woman — known only as Charlotte — and the baby he saved. Here, he tells The Sun on Sunday his story. He asked to not be pictured for fear of reprisal attacks.
THE pregnant stranger who I pulled from a window is now a mother to a beautiful daughter — it was surreal to think they may not be alive had it not been for me.
When I think back to the night of November 13 and the bloodshed, the destruction and the pain mankind can inflict, it is overwhelming to think I have made a friend for life.
I am no one special. I woke up exactly one year ago today as a happy-go-lucky 34-year-old trying to find my way in life. The last thing I was was a hero.
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But the next time I woke up, that, unfortunately, is what I had become.
All because I gave my arm to a woman who needed help.
This gesture, which seemed so ordinary, suddenly became a symbol of humanity as three masked suicide bombers slaughtered 89 around me.
To think out of such darkness and despair that I formed an unbreakable bond with someone is incredible.
The moment I pulled her inside is a blur. But it was captured on camera and became the most talked-about video on the planet.
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The film shows her desperately clinging on for life while her cries that she is pregnant echo through the eerie streets. The only other sound is that of maniacs murdering innocent people with Kalashnikovs.
All it took for me to become tragically famous was to be in the worst place at the worst time.
I have not accepted the hero status pinned on me but every time I see the woman I saved and her new daughter I tell myself I was in the right place at the right time.
The girl is not my child but I feel such warmth and affection for her when I see her with her family. Her fantastic mother pushed herself to life’s limits in order to save her.
She is fiercely protective and determined to keep their lives private.
I consider myself fortunate to be able to visit them in their Paris home, as we immediately became separated once I pulled her inside.
I do not know where she went. I wasn’t sure if I could remember her face and I didn’t know her name. I remember saying to her, ‘Wow! you’re good at climbing’, as she had so much strength to hold on to my arm.
A friend of hers launched a Twitter appeal to find me, which was seen by my brother, who connected us.
A few days later we met up and just cried for each other.
I had woken up on that Friday excited for the weekend.
To think out of such darkness that I formed an unbreakable bond with someone is incredible
I was heading to the Bataclan — Paris’s best music spot — to see Eagles of Death Metal with my friend Jeff. My ex-girlfriend’s brother was getting married the day after, so it was set to be a hell of a weekend. Jeff and I arrived at 8pm, grabbed a beer and made our way to the stage, bagging a plum spot in front of lead singer Jesse Hughes.
That was the first thing that saved my life, as soon after gunshots cracked behind us. We thought it was part of the show. Then more went off and we knew it wasn’t.
The singer fled, the lights came on and I turned to see two or three guys firing. The first people to be killed were at the bar, where we had just been. I saw a guy next to me take a bullet in the head.
Panic erupted, some people ran, some dropped to the floor, some hid. My clothes were full of blood as I crawled over bodies to get to an emergency exit. I crossed the stage, hidden behind the black curtain, and saw no escape. I was trapped.
I sprinted upstairs to the balcony and in front of me there were two windows. One had a pregnant woman clinging on for life outside.
She was begging people in the street to save her if she jumped but no one could stop. They were running from bullets being fired from an emergency exit, the one I couldn’t find seconds earlier.
I went to the same window and clung to an air vent ten metres above the ground. I gripped on for life for five minutes before the exhausted woman asked me to help her inside. I helped her before clinging to my vent again but don’t know where she went from there.
Minutes later I felt a Kalashnikov pressed against my leg as a terrorist yelled: “Get down from there, do what I say and I won’t kill you.”
They led us to the first floor to watch them fire at people in front of the stage. The terrorists laughed.
They held a dozen of us hostage, ordering us to call news channels to tell them they had explosive vests and if they saw officers closing in they’d detonate them.
They threatened to kill one of us every five minutes and throw the body out the window.
We waited. Those minutes remain the longest of my life. I closed my eyes and prayed to go in peace.
Suddenly, what seemed to be a bullet pierced the door. The police rescue was on and they threw in a stun grenade. When a second fell at my feet, I sprinted for my life as it exploded. Armed officers trampled over me after I was thrown to the floor but it was the happiest pain in my life. I was being saved.
The hateful bile the terrorists spouted is in such contrast to the zest for life the woman I saved has.
She is due to get married and she has gone back to working in the music industry.
As a keen musician myself we have planned to write songs together. It is way for both of us to cope.
I saw her daughter for the first time in September but she cried in my arms. I took a guitar to make her stop and it worked. Now it was the mother’s turn to cry because her baby was enjoying the music I played on her old guitar.
I still think anyone in my position would have given his arm, and that the real hero is the security chief who returned to open the exit. Or the police who shot dead two terrorists without killing a hostage.
It takes great events to reveal one’s greatness, they say. Waking up alive on November 14 was probably my greatest event.
And greatness lies within the everyday quest for freedom and happiness, in the everyday acts we do for each other without hesitation.
It’s just that my act was caught on camera for the world to see.
Sting gig reopens theatre
DEFIANT fans last night vowed to show terrorists they were not afraid as they watched Sting reopen the Paris Bataclan a year after 89 people were massacred there.
They laid flowers before the former Police frontman took to the stage for the first gig at the 150-year-old venue since the atrocity.
Sting, 65, said the show would serve to “remember and honour those who lost their lives” and “celebrate the life and music this historic theatre represents”.
Fan Laura Sanchez, 41, from Cadiz in Spain, said: “Terrorists want to stop us – but no one has the right to stop us”.