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From his Paris window, he saw the horror of the November 13, 2015 attacks and filmed the terror. Daniel Psenny, who was working as a journalist for French daily Le Monde, witnessed the attack on the Bataclan concert hall, in which 90 people were slaughtered by terrorists. With his mobile phone, Psenny, who lives just a few metres from the venue, filmed the only existing video of the Bataclan attack. FRANCE 24 brings you it as part of this special full-length animated documentary, ahead of next week’s trial into the atrocities.
It’s shortly after 9.40pm on the evening of November 13, 2015. French journalist Daniel Psenny is watching a police drama on television. He isn’t really paying attention to it, nor to the sounds of “firecrackers” coming from the street. He thinks they are coming from the TV. But the noise is persistent and getting louder and louder. Psenny finally realises that “something is wrong”. Maybe “a settling of scores” in the middle of a concert, he thinks. He opens his window and sees people covered in blood, fleeing from the Bataclan concert hall at the end of the street, in which the US band Eagles of Death Metal is performing. That’s when he starts filming on his mobile phone.
Shortly afterwards, all noise and movement stop. Around 10pm, everything is calm. Psenny decides to go out onto the street, believing the incident is over. Once down there, he rescues a man, an American who is lying on the pavement a few metres from him. He drags him into the hallway of his building with the help of a stranger whom he will never see again. Before closing the front door, he takes one last look outside and feels a pain in his arm: a Kalashnikov bullet has just gone through his biceps. The time is 10.01pm.
A neighbour from the building comes to help them. After that, they will experience several hours of anguish before being rescued by the police. Three long hours, without knowing whether they will pull through or breathe their last.
>> Ahead of next week’s trial, click here for our full coverage of the November 2015 Paris attacks
