Vigils have been held to remember the victims of the Paris attacks, one week on. Crowds gathered across the city, as people struggle to come to terms
ADVERTISEMENTVigils have been held to remember the victims of the Paris attacks, one week on. Crowds gathered across the city, as people struggle to come to terms with the terror of that Friday night.
One-hundred-and-thirty people were killed and hundreds more wounded when attackers unleashed explosions and gunfire in the French capital.
“I think for me what prevails beyond the emotion, it’s the feeling of not understanding anything about the time in which I’m living,” said one woman.
Jean-Marie de Peretti lost his daughter Aurelie in the attacks. She was killed at the Bataclan concert hall, where gunmen opened fire on the crowd.
“All of those messages which are behind us at the memorial site. The flowers, the lights. Banners that evoke hope. It helps,” said Jean-Marie.
In the chaos and confusion that followed an explosion at the Comptoir Voltaire cafe, David – a nurse – set about helping a man who was unconscious.
“A man performing the resuscitation with me said ‘maybe we should remove the T-shirt, it’s better.’ I said ‘yes, you’re right.’ And then when I ripped off his T-shirt, I saw some wires,” explained David.
“I knew it was him. At that precise moment when I realised what he was, the emergency services arrived.”
The man David was trying to save was reportedly Brahim Abdeslam, one of the alleged Paris attackers.
The violence that night was the deadliest in France since World War Two.