Aussie boy lay beside body in Paris hall
A young Australian boy has told of lying beside a bloodied body on the floor of the Bataclan theatre in Paris as two gunmen methodically shot terrified victims.
A memorial has grown next to the Bataclan theatre in Paris. AFP PHOTO / MIGUEL MEDINA
Oscar Leader, 12, and his father John were in the theatre on Friday night when terrorists stormed in and calmly began executing people with assault rifles.
The pair escaped the initial barrage of shots by cowering behind the mixing deck for the Eagles of Death Metal concert they were attending alongside 1500 other fans.
When the theatre fell silent, and after a call from someone in the crowd that the attackers had gone, they made a break for an open fire exit.
That was when the shooting started again.
John Leader grabbed his son and pulled him to the floor where they lay among the dead and the dying.
“I was lying just next to one … I really was not in a comfortable position at that moment,” Oscar has told CNN, describing how he was rigid with fear beside one of the 89 people shot dead.
He told, too, of hearing one gunman shouting as he carried out the attack.
“He said you need to think about Syria but in French. There wasn’t any accent or anything.”
Leader said the gravity of what he and his son had survived was yet to sink in.
“For Oscar we’re focusing on this not being a life defining event … I don’t think we’re in shock. We’re in the denial phase,” the 46-year-old told JJJ’s Hack program.
Two of the gunmen had worked together, one coolly aiming at and shooting victims while the other covered him to make sure he could continue the slaughter with “AK-47-style guns”.
“They were very calm, very methodical, very slow. I watched the guy reloading,” Leader said.
“This was practised. They weren’t in there shooting like in an American movie. It was finding a target and then shooting and then finding the next target and then shooting.”
Leader finally made it out but was horrified when he realised he’d become separated from his son.
The father and son fled separately up the street, as the shooting continued at their backs. They were reunited shortly after when Leader called his son’s mobile.
“After two days we’re starting to take the measure of what’s happened,” Leader said.
“The fear hasn’t hit yet. It’s not to say it won’t. It hasn’t sunk in how lucky we were.”
