Paris terror: Bataclan band tell how victims were slaughtered in dressing room

The lead singer of the band playing at the Bataclan concert hall on the night of the Paris attacks has described how gunmen slaughtered fans who hid in the dressing room. Jesse Hughes, the Eagles of Death Metal frontman, told Vice News that only one person in that room survived as the terrorists fired indiscriminately, by hiding under a leather jacket. In the interview, his voice broke as he described scared concertgoers playing dead.

A great reason why so many were killed was because so many people wouldn’t leave their friends, and so many people put themselves in front of people.

Lead singer Jesse Hughes

The Bataclan concert hall suffered the most fatalities during the co-ordinated attacks on 13 November – and 89 of the 130 people who lost their lives were at the ill-fated gig. As the sound of automatic gunfire rang out in the venue, “panic and horror” broke out amongst concertgoers – with footage showing a pregnant woman hanging from a window ledge as she tried to shield herself from the attackers. During the hostage situation in the Bataclan, two attackers detonated suicide vests.

Several people hid in our dressing room and the killers were able to get in and killed every one of them except for a kid who was hiding under my leather jacket.

Jesse Hughes

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