Paris attacks: 'I saw people on the ground and blood'
- Published
Video footage taken by a French journalist from a balcony overlooking an alleyway outside the Bataclan concert hall in Paris has captured the horror of people fleeing from gunmen who stormed the venue.
Injured music fans can be seen lying on the ground as others run past. Three people cling to upper-floor balcony railings in an attempt to hide from the assailants inside.
Le Monde newspaper reporter Daniel Psenny was himself shot as he tried to help a man who collapsed on the pavement.
The attack on the 1,500-seat Bataclan concert hall was the deadliest on Friday night. Gunmen opened fire on a sell-out gig by US rock group Eagles of Death Metal, killing at least 80 people.
Mr Psenney's clip - taken from his second-floor home - has been posted on Le Monde's website.
The reporter, who had been working from home at the time, said he heard a noise "like fireworks" but assumed it was part of a film about police that was showing on TV at the time.
"But it was loud, so I went to the window," he added.
"I live on the second floor, and my apartment overlooks Bataclan's emergency exits. Sometimes there are evacuations of the building, but this time people were running everywhere.
"I saw people on the ground, blood… That's when I understood this was something serious."
"One woman was clinging to a window on Bataclan's second floor. It reminded me of images from 11 September."
'Shooter at window'
After asking people what had happened, Mr Psenny decided to help.
"I was going to go down to open the door so people could take refuge," he said.
"There was a man lying on the pavement. With another man, we pulled him inside the hall, for shelter. I must have been shot then - I don't know, I can't remember. But I remember it felt like a firecracker exploding in my left arm, and I saw blood spurting out.
"I think the shooter was at the window of the Bataclan."
Mr Psenny described how he then made his way to a neighbour's flat on the fourth floor - only to find that fire-fighters were unable to evacuate people at that stage.
"The guy who had been dragged inside had a bullet in his leg," he said. "He was American. He was vomiting. He felt cold - we thought he was going to die.
"I rang a doctor friend and she told me how to tie a tourniquet with my shirt. We stayed hiding there until the storming of the hall and the RAID [special forces] came to find us."