Paris singer describes massacre
Only one person survived a massacre inside the dressing room of rock band Eagles of Death Metal during the terrorist attack at the Bataclan concert hall, it has been revealed.
The lead singer of Eagles of Death Metal, has spoken for the first time since gunmen opened fire during his band’s performance in Paris.
The US band was playing at the Bataclan concert hall, where 89 people died during the attacks.
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In an interview with Vice magazine, singer Jesse Hughes and band member Josh Homme said several people hid in the band’s dressing room during the attack.
“Several people hid in our dressing room, and the killers were able to get in and kill every one of them, except for a kid who was hiding under my leather jacket,” Mr Hughes said in a snippet of the interview released online.
“People were playing dead, and they were so scared.
A French policeman assists a blood-covered victim near the Bataclan concert hall.
“A great reason why so many were killed is because so many people wouldn’t leave their friends, so many people put themselves in front of people.”
A member of the band’s entourage, Briton Nick Alexander, was killed in the violence.
Australian teenager Emma Grace Parkinson was injured in the Bataclan attack and underwent surgery in a Paris hospital.
The band released a statement in the wake of the attack calling for “love and compassion” but said it was still coming to terms with what had happened.
Meanwhile, cafes, bars and night clubs in the centre of Brussels have been closed after the Belgian Government raised its terror alert on Saturday to the highest level amid threats of a Paris-style attack.
The country’s prime minister said the upgrade was linked to an imminent risk of attacks by “weapons and explosives”.
The city is home to Molenbeek, a poor district where the ringleader of the Paris attacks, Abdelhamid Abaaoud, is believed to have recruited young men from immigrant families to fight for Islamic State (IS).
-with agencies