Paris attack survivor recalls Friday night horror on Facebook, 'I pretended to be dead for over an hour'

A 22-year-old young woman, who survived the shooting in Paris' Bataclan Theatre, has posted an emotional Facebook message after her Friday night ordeal. Isobel Bowdery, a student from Cape Town, shared a photo of her dirt and blood-stained top on her Facebook account, where she also narrated her horrifying story.

The South African national living in Paris was among many concert goers who were present at the Bataclan concert hall in Paris to watch the American rock group Eagles of Death Metal perform on Friday night. In her emotional post, Bowdery said she thought men opening gunfire at the theatre was was all part of the show at first but after hearing screams and seeing bloodshed, she soon realised it was a reality.

“The atmosphere was so happy and everyone was dancing and smiling. And then when the men came through the front entrance and began the shooting, we naiively believed it was all part of the show,” Bowdery wrote on her Facebook post.

Bowdery lay in pools of blood and also pretended to dead for more than an hour while the chaos surrounded her.

“As I lay down in the blood of strangers and waiting for my bullet to end my mere 22 years, I envisioned every face that I have ever loved and whispered I love you. Over and over again,” the 22-year-old said.

“Pools of blood filled the floor. Cries of grown men who held their girlfriends dead bodies pierced the small music venue. Futures demolished, families heartbroken. In an instant. Shocked and alone, I pretended to be dead for over an hour, lying among people who could see their loved ones motionless,” she wrote.

“Holding my breath, trying to not move, not cry — not giving those men the fear they longed to see. I was incredibly lucky to survive,” Bowdery wrote, adding that it was not a “just a terrorist attack, it was a massacre.”

She also took the opportunity to thank the unknown people who came to her help during the massacre.

“To the man who reassured me and put his life on line to try and cover my brain whilst I whimpered, to the couple whose last words of love kept me believing the good in the world, to the police who succeeded in rescuing hundreds of people, to the complete strangers who picked me up from the road and consoled me during the 45 minutes I truly believed the boy I loved was dead,” she wrote.

The death toll of Paris attacks is 129 at present but it may rise in future. More than 352 people were injured in the Paris bloodshed and at least 99 were in an "extremely serious" condition.

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