Daniel Psenny

Paris eyewitness: I saw people fleeing and a woman clinging to a window ledge. It was like 9/11

Daniel Psenny, a journalist for Le Monde, was shot in the arm last night as he tried to rescue the wounded who had escaped from the concert hall. His film of the survivors fleeing the scene, above, has gone around the world. His account of last night is below:-

I was working from home and had the television on, showing a film in which Jean-Hugues Anglade plays the role of a cop. I heard a noise like firecrackers, and at the beginning thought it was part of the film. But the noise was loud, so I went to the window. I live on the second floor, and my apartment overlooks the emergency exits of the Bataclan. Sometimes we do see hurried evacuations, but this time everyone was running from all sides, I saw guys on the floor, and blood … I quickly understood that something serious was going on. I asked what was happening. Everyone was rushing back to the Rue Amelot and Boulevard Voltaire. A woman was clinging to a window of the Bataclan on the second floor. I thought of the images of Sept. 11.

I then decided to offer help to those seeking shelter. I opened the door of the building, and saw a man lying on the pavement. I remember feeling as if a firecracker had exploded in my left arm. I must have taken a bullet. I can’t remember what happened – my mind goes blank. But I do remember an explosion in my left arm and I saw it begin to gush blood. The shooter must have been at the window of the Bataclan. We went up to see some neighbours on the fourth floor; the guy we took in had a bullet lodged in his leg. I called a doctor friend, who told me how to make me a tourniquet with my shirt. We stayed stuck until the assault finished, and the RAID [French special forces] picked us up. ”

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