In an interview with 60 Minutes last night, Tasmanian teenager Emma Parkinson recalled the terrifying scenes she witnessed inside the Bataclan concert hall in Paris, when gunmen opened fire during an Eagles Of Death Metal show.
The 19-year-old was only a short distance from the stage, and initially believed the loud noises she heard to be fireworks, saying:
“I thought someone had fireworks. You know, like just little fireworks that you buy at the supermarket. I remember thinking, ‘What an idiot – who does that at a concert?’”
As shooting intensified, Parkinson says she huddled on the ground, and attempted to escape over a barrier, at which point, she realised she had been shot:
“It just sort of came through my head, ‘OK, I’ve been shot, did it hit anything important? Probably not … gotta keep going. So I kept going.”
She recalled the extent of the horror unfolding around her, saying:
“To be honest, somebody could have died right next to me and I probably wouldn’t have realised, because it was just people rushing. There was no-one [who] didn’t have blood on them. Everyone was covered. I’m just seeing people running as fast as they could.”
You can watch a section of the interview below:
Yesterday, Vice released the first footage of their interview with Eagles Of Death Metal, who were on stage when gunmen stormed the concert venue; the full interview will be released this week.
via ABC News
