London: Describing the scene within the Bataclan theatre as something out of Dante's Hell, accounts from the survivors and the police officers involved, reveal terrible details of the two-hour long siege of the concert hall.
Revealing how the attackers used the hostages as human shields and promised to kill one hostage every five minutes, a report in DailyMail described the final moments on the attacks.
"We are going to make you go through what the innocents in Syria are suffering," one of the victims reportedly quoted the attackers as saying, and added, "We will massacre the innocent. We want you to tell everybody."
The attackers issued threats of killing one person every 5 minutes and throw bodies out of the window, which could have prompted the swift raid that followed. One of the survivors also recalls that the attackers spoke in French and that one of them looked Algerian. They also wanted to talk to reporters, he said, adding that the attackers wanted media attention to spread their toxic brand of Islam. They also asked him to burn cash in a protest of western capitalism.
The police used battering ram to break open the door, and threw in stun grenades. The ISIS terrorists had placed two human shields by the door but they were unhurt despite the force.
One of the terrorists blew himself up when the first officer arrived at the theatre at 10 pm. Following the storming in later on at 10.15, the remaining terrorists fled upstairs and continued shooting. An hour later, the terrorists, who were by now holed up behind a door with hostages, yelled out that they would blow up everything if the forces tried to break in the door.
No police or hostages were killed in the three minutes of gunfire exchange that followed, which left both the terrorists dead. One of them detonated the suicide vest, while the other was killed in the gunfight. Images of a bullet ridden riot shield surfaced on Wednesday, showing the intensity of the atatcks.
The police officer, describing the hostages who were free, said "They emerged from the most extraordinary hiding places and came out like Zombies. They were in a terrible state and could hardly walk."
Meanwhile, another report indicates that the attackers could have been under the influence of drugs. Citing a video showing the insides of the filthy rooms that they rented out before carrying out the attacks, the report says that a pile of used syringes, a set of short needles and plastic tubing were found scattered on the coffee table of the room. The video also showed leftovers of Pizza and chocolate cakes.
The police have also found that the suicide bomber Ibrahim Abdeslam rented a safe house 15km away.
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