November 13 attacks: survivors tell of their horror in the face of the jihadists in the Bataclan<

"I played dead for two hours, tried to merge with the ground": at the trial of the attacks of November 13, 2015, survivors of the Bataclan massacre began to tell Wednesday, October 6, how they remained at "the mercy" of the "blind inhumanity" of the attackers.

That Friday night, Irmine attended the Eagles of Death Metal concert with his friend Fabian. They are near the entrance, she "in black", he in "white raincoat" behind her, wishes to specify the fifty-year-old at the helm of the special assize court in Paris. Fabian will not survive the first shots of a long carnage which will cause a total of 90 deaths.

"The bullets went through my chest, but superficially"

As soon as the attack began, Irmine heard "a man in a rather high-pitched, almost youthful voice, without an accent, shouting : "France has nothing to do in Syria", then "The first one who moves, I kill him". "We want to enter the earth," says the 55-year-old woman, a strict black suit and a grizzled square, the first civil party to give her story of the Bataclan attack.

The auditorium is plunged into "darkness", for Irmine it becomes "an abyss, a black hole" where the "bodies are indistinguishable". After "half an hour perhaps", the head of security in the room, "Didi", says "in a firm voice: 'get out quickly, they are reloading their weapons'", recalls Irmine. On the way out, she sees " Fabian's raincoat, legs, shoes", his "unrecognizable head". She tries to "pull him back", in vain she says. "Hands full of blood", Irmine is first collected from local residents, she seems "to be fine". "I was very lucky: the bullets went through my chest, but superficially".

"It was thought to leave indelible traces"

At the start of the concert, Jean-Marc was heading for the exit to smoke a cigarette when he heard "noisy sounds" and found himself " nose-to-nose with the three assailants", who "fire in bursts". "I saw people around me receiving bullets, everyone started screaming, falling either because they were hit or by the effect of movement", describes Jean-Marc, 40, hoodie under a denim jacket. Throughout his testimony, his voice does not stop shaking.

"On the ground, prostrate, without the possibility of fleeing", he remains "face down", with "the feeling of being completely exposed, at the mercy of the shooters". It has "the sound, not the image". Except "the feet" of a jihadist, very close to his face. "I felt the casings fall on my head". "We were completely helpless, not knowing if we were going to take the next bullet or not. It's so inhuman. It was thought to leave indelible traces", underlines Jean-Marc, a hint of anger in his voice . He will play dead until the end of the attack. It is by raising his head that he measures "the extent of the massacre". "A policeman had to yell at me to get me out."

"Gentlemen who made the jihad..."

Cédric also "played dead for two hours". "I tried to merge with the ground", sums up this 41-year-old former delivery driver, a black T-shirt and large tattoos. That evening, everything went “very very quickly”. What looks like a "crack" or "firecrackers", a "falling" crowd, assailants reloading their weapons.

"They shot us like rabbits, as soon as a telephone rang or someone shouted for help", insists Cédric. From this methodical massacre, he keeps a trampled right leg which can "no longer run" , the "guilt of being alive". And then "all these images". Those of this "person choking on his blood", the one who died staring at him, those on whom "we had to walk" to get out.

Cédric questions the box of the accused: "gentlemen who made the jihad, have you seen people die by looking them in the eye?". "You attacked us, but we are innocent, unarmed. You are angry with a State, why us?" The president of the court Jean-Louis Périès then intervenes, to recall that the accused "benefit from the presumption of innocence".