They were eleven. “Three women and eight men”, tells Grégory, Tuesday October 19 at the trial of the attacks of November 13, 2015. Six of the spectators of the Bataclan taken hostage by the terrorists took the stand to testify of these more than two hours “surrealists” spent in a “cramped corridor” from the concert hall, until the final assault on the BIS.
At the bar, Grégory, gray hair and red scarf over his blue shirt, explains that he is on the balcony, with his friend Caroline, when the first shots ring out in the room, at 9.47 p.m. “The balcony emptied in a few seconds”, but they remain. On the ground, eyes closed, Grégory “made) the dead” when the terrorists go upstairs. Until I hear this “directing voice”, that of Ismaël Omar Mostefai, who orders on several occasions: “Upright !” Gregory gathers his things. “Why are you taking your things? No use, you’re going to die.”
The two friends are grouped together on the left of the balcony, soon joined by other spectators, such as Sébastien, David Fritz-Goeppinger, Arnaud and Marie, who also testified before the special assize court. The hostages first remember the terrorists who “take pleasure” to shoot in the pit, below. One of them looked like “possesses”, according to Caroline.
“Anytime anyone moves in the pit, they’re going to get shot. Mostefai makes me feel like he’s in a video game.”
Grégory, hostage at the Bataclanduring the trial of the November 13 attacks
The former hostages also evoke the “threat” and the “diatribes” by Foued Mohamed Aggad and Ismaël Omar Mostefai. “They explain to us that they come from Syria, that François Hollande is killing women and children in Syria and Iraq”, reports Grégory. “They ask us who we voted for” in the presidential election. Terrorists get annoyed because “several of the hostages explain that they did not vote”, he adds.
The explosion of the third assailant, Samy Amimour, on the Bataclan stage, shortly before 10 p.m. “rushed things”, remembers Caroline in turn. The terrorists gather the hostages in a hallway and order them to stand against the windows. One of them summons Grégory to go get a bag of ammunition on the balcony: “You run, you’re going to look for her. If you don’t go, I’ll kill you.”
Witnesses also describe “Tasks” entrusted by terrorists. Some hostages had to watch the windows, when Caroline was “responsible for looking at the ceiling”. Behind the door to the corridor, now closed, Grégory must report what he hears in the room. The 39-year-old listens to “groans”, the “screams”. “It’s good, you work well”, even congratulates one of the attackers.
Sébastien explains that the terrorists ask him to burn a wad of banknotes. Without really understanding why, he obeyed. “I think of Gainsbourg at that time”, entrusts to the bar this former journalist, dressed in a shirt with red checks, the same one that he wore that evening. The tickets almost consumed, a terrorist isolates Sébastien at the end of the corridor.
“I tell myself that he’s going to sacrifice me on the altar of Western-style capitalism, that he’s going to blow my brains out like I burned the bundle.”
Sébastien, hostage at the Bataclanduring the trial of the November 13 attacks
But the terrorist simply orders him to “return to (her) square”. The messages and actions of the attackers “were very contradictory. They did not seem to have prepared “ this hostage-taking, Caroline analyzes. “The screenplay, they hadn’t written it in advance”, abounds Sébastien.
A certain improvisation also shines through during the negotiations with the men of the BRI, massed behind the door of the corridor. “Firstly”, terrorists demand walkie-talkies, explains David in turn. Then, a hostage offers to use his phone. A scene follows “surrealist”, where the hostages repeatedly decline the phone number to the police. On the other side, the BIS negotiator struggles to hear them and repeats the digits of the number with his “very heavy southern accent”, notes David. “In this horror, it’s a moment that made us breath a little”, remembers Grégory.
The terrorists demand a written letter from François Hollande committing to the withdrawal of military troops from Syria. “It didn’t seem like a thoughtful request to me”, continues Caroline. THEThe negotiations are slipping, despite the many “phone calls” with the members of the BIS. “I thought that on Sunday, we would still be there”, squeaks Grégory, who keeps all the same “the hope of a favorable outcome”. David is resigned.
“It’s going nowhere anyway. I felt my life was hanging by a thread.”
David, hostage at the Bataclanduring the trial of the November 13 attacks
Especially since David realizes that Foued Mohamed Aggad, next to him, is wearing an explosive vest. The terrorist pronounces what looks like “to a last prayer”. “What are you doing? Aren’t you going to do this to me brother?”, then throws him Ishmael Omar Mostefai. “No no”, reassure the other.
It is 12:18 am when the final assault is launched. “To me it seems to go on forever and it was only after I found out that it had lasted 60 seconds.”, says Grégory. From this intervention of a “incredible violence”, the former hostages remember the bullets of the terrorists “which burst above (their) heads “, the imposing shield of the BRI, the “green lasers”, pomegranates. “We no longer had any notion of space, I started to be trampled on”Caroline remembers. Foued Mohamed Aggad triggers his explosive belt. David’s body is lifted by the power of the detonation. “For me, I’m dead, But I hear some noise, I tell myself that this is good news. “
That evening, the hostages left the Bataclan alive. An outcome that all witnesses say owe to “hero”, of “gods” of the BRI who led the assault with “brio”. “That evening, it was they who were behind that door and they did their best to make sure we all got out of this hallway safe and sound”, insists Grégory. A survival that they also owe to themselves. “Everyone has kept their calm” and “nobody cracked”, they assure. Through this common experience, the eleven hostages forged strong friendships. Together they are now called the “soups”, contraction of “friends” and D’“hostages”. One nickname at a time “humorous” and “tender”, smiles Sébastien.