Inside the Bataclan: ‘A bloodbath,’ witness says

With dozens trapped inside and the police massing for an assault, President François Hollande went on television to declare a state of emergency, his voice trembling.

More than 100 people were killed in the concert hall when three teams of masked gunmen opened fire before blowing themselves up.

Mr O’Connor, from South Shields, told the BBC of the chaos inside the venue with “people falling all over the place, people screaming, people just clawing and running and pushing to get away”.

“Early in the game we heard two explosions – two very loud explosions”.

The extent of those who were complicit in the attack still remains unknown. The attacks across Paris left at least 127 people dead. And it lasted for ten minutes, ten minutes, ten horrific minutes where everybody was on the floor covering their head and we heard so many gunshots.

Pearce saw two people he called terrorists enter the theater, “very calm, very determined” and firing “randomly”. The streets were filled with the sounds of sirens, ambulances were rushing past. Tonight, all Canadians and British Columbians stand with them, both in grief for those who were killed, but also in resolve. It’s known for its terrace – it’s very popular for people wanting to eat outside, it was quite a mild November evening.

“When I arrived there, there were already 10 to 15 people in it, hiding and panicking”, he said.

Another witness, Pierre Janaszak, a radio presenter, was sitting in the balconies with his sister and friends, when they heard shots from below about one hour into the show.

BLEEDING bodies sprawled across the street. Then they went for it.

“I guess I thought at a few point “they are just going to shoot at us as well” and everybody else”.

“That was one of the most eerie parts, that you could hear somebody methodically reloading his guns to start opening fire on you again”, he said. I couldn’t see anything.

The worst of the attacks came at the Bataclan concert hall hosting an American rock band where the attackers took hostages before security forces stormed the hall.

Outside the Bataclan cafe, near the Bataclan concert hall. I saw what I thought was at least two people, then I fled.

“I got outside and I was just happy to be out. I understood that it was serious”. I was kind of surprised.

“I immediately thought of a terrorist attack”. “During the evacuation, we had to stride over corpses, so we had to look at the floor”.

“They came in through the front door and just began shooting at the crowd, shooting at everyone like insane”.

Said and Cherif Kouachi wanted to punish the magazine for the publication of cartoons that they believed mocked the Prophet Mohammed.

“Everyone scrabbled to the ground”, Coupris said. I was on the ground with a man on top of me and another one beside me up against a wall…. “I knew something was odd”, he tells TIME in an interview. I only saw him one time, since they told us to hit the ground, and I avoided moving as much as I could…. I was terrified. We must all have thought the same.

“The police were stopping at every café and forcing people inside the cafes”.

He said: “I saw a guy probably 6ft 4ins to 6ft 5ins, quite a heavy-set man, looked Caucasian from about 50 yards away”.

People drag wounded or dead down the alleyway, leaving a trails of blood.