Paris attacks: Woman's chilling recount of massacre goes viral

(Facebook)
(Facebook)

As gunmen sprayed bullets indiscriminately into the crowd watching a rock concert at the Batacalan theatre in Paris, Isobel Bowdery lay motionless and in a puddle of blood on the floor hoping she'd get out alive.

Ms Bowdery was one of 1500 audience members at the sold-out Eagles of Death Metal concert who witnessed the atrocities of yesterday's attack.

In a post to Facebook, which has been shared more than 154,000 times and "liked" almost 400,000 times, she retells the experience that nearly ended her life, accompanied by a photo of her blood-stained singlet.

 

"Holding my breath, trying to not move, not cry - not give those men the fear they longed to see. I was incredibly lucky to survive," she says.

More than 82 people were killed in the theatre attack, which has been described as "carnage".

"It was a massacre. Dozens of people were shot right in front of me. Pools of blood filled the floor. Cries of grown men who held their girlfriends' dead bodies pierced the small music venue.

"The way they meticulously aimed and at shot people around the standing area I was in the centre of, without any consideration for human life, it didn't feel real."

As the men circulated the venue looking for any sign of movement, Ms Bowdery says she played dead and thought of her loved ones while she waited for the final bullet to end it all.

"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."

Unbeknown to her or any of the others in the concert, five more attacks were coordinated across the city, with responsibility claimed by Islamic State-affiliated jihadists.

In groups of three, the men gripped Paris in a reign of terror, killing 129 people across France's capital city.

Taking hold of bars, restaurants and sports stadiums, the City of Light was brought to a halt as elite police groups and military moved in to gain back control.

All eight offenders across Paris are now dead, seven of whom detonated suicide bombs, while one was killed by police.

"Being a survivor of this horror lets me able to shed light on the heroes. 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…you make me believe this world has the potential to be better. To never let this happen again."

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