TERRIFYING TRUE STORY of how one man survived the Paris attacks and saves pregnant woman from ledge

'She was begging people down below if they would catch her if she jumped'

A man who has been identified only as Sebastian, opened up about the Bataclan music hall attack and how he saved a pregnant woman from a window ledge moments before she would have fallen to her death.

LOS ANGELES, CA (Catholic Online) - A pregnant woman was recorded hanging from a ledge, screaming for help. The camera panned away before the world could see her rescue, but luckily a man did pull her to safety. 

Her savior, a man who wished only to be referred to as "Sebastian," has stepped forward to recount the horrific event to La Province. He heard the first shot and described how several audience members mistook it for part of the act. Seconds later, a second shot rang out and the band fled the stage.

"The singer had gone," Sebastian said. "The lights came on and I turned to the entrance and saw two or three guys armed with Kalashnikovs. They were shooting at anyone they met. Those in the bar went down first. Everyone fell to the ground. I saw a guy  next to me take a bullet in the head.

"Word spread there was an exit behind the stage. I crawled closer to it. I had to crawl over dead bodies, wounded people, my clothes were full of blood. I took advantage of one guy reloading to escape behind the stage. On the left there was no emergency exit so I crossed and hid behind a black curtain and got to the other side. There was no exit there either. 

"I climbed the stairs, but they led onto the balcony of the concert hall. That's when I went to the windows and saw her." Sebastian described how three armed ISIS suicide bombers were roaming corridors of the Bataclan music hall and were shooting down citizens. As he fled the arena and through a window to cling to an air vent for safety, he claims he saw the woman clinging to the next window ledge, screaming, "help me, I'm pregnant."

He described her pleas to "people down below if they would catch her if she jumped. But it was chaos down there. We were 15 metres (nearly 50 feet) above the ground.

"I held on for five minutes and then the pregnant woman, who was exhausted, begged me to help her get back inside. That's what I did. I don't know where she went afterwards but I went back to my old hiding place which wasn't great. Five minutes later I felt the barrel of a Kalashnikov against my leg and a terrorist yelling: 'Get down from there... Lie on the ground.'"

He could hear screams from within the music hall and compared the screams to the sounds of people being tortured.

"They told us: 'We're here to make you go through what the innocent are suffering in Syria. You hear the cries of the suffering? Now you feel the fear that people go through every day in Syria. It's war. And that's just the beginning. We will massacre the innocent. We want you to tell everybody.'"

Sebastian thought they were going to kill him then, but instead the terrorists asked him and others to contact BFM, ITV.

"They wanted to talk to reporters," Sebastian said. "They asked, for some reason, if money was important to me and took out a wad of €50 notes and made me burn them. They spoke French to one another ... One was Algerian looking with blue eyes. They said they wanted to talk to the police. They put us against the windows and I had to shout to them to stay away.

"They said they had explosive belts and if the police approached they would blow us all up. They didn't seem organized and spoke to a negotiator via a hostage's notebook. The only claim they made was the withdrawal of forces. Then they threatened to kill one of us every five minutes and throw a body out of the window. I think they negotiator managed to organize that we would come out and then we waited.

"We were the hostages. Those minutes were the longest of my life. I went through all the emotions including hope and finally the acceptance of death even if I closed my eyes against it and the Kalashnikov pointed in my direction. The terrorists had placed two human shields on doors but the security services managed to burst in without touching them.

"They used a battering ram and threw a stun grenade. When I saw a second one fall at my feet I told myself it was time to flee. I ran. The grenade exploded and threw me under the ram as the forces came through. I was trampled on but it was the happiest day of my life. I was saved."

Since her rescue, the woman and her friends have taken to social media in an attempt to find and thank him. The pregnant woman, who wishes to remain anonymous, was able to contact Sebastian with the help of friends, one of whom said her friend "wanted to thank everyone who had a part in helping her. She could not do it herself as she didn't want to be exposed as she wants wants to put it to rest now. The brother of the man who helped her contacted me by email and we checked and it was the right person. They've exchanged numbers and all is going well and that's all we wanted."

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