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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.
"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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