At a Paris Concert, Sudden Gunfire

‘I heard a lot of screaming. They were shooting randomly.’

 Concertgoers are evacuated outside the Bataclan theater in Paris

PARIS—It was a clear Friday evening in one of Paris’s liveliest nightlife districts, and the rock music was blaring. Then, at least two gunmen burst into a packed music venue and opened fire.
“I heard a lot of screaming. They were shooting randomly,” said Frederic Nowak, 49 years old, still wearing a bloodstained T-shirt after escaping the 1,500-capacity Bataclan club via the roof. “I saw them shoot people who were lying on the floor.”
The assault was a chilling crescendo to a series of attacks that took at least 100 lives in six locations across the French capital. The attacks targeted mainly venues frequented by young people in hip neighborhoods on the eastern half of the city that house hundreds of bars, clubs and restaurants.
Less than a mile away Damien Jalet, 39, a choreographer from Brussels was walking along the trendy Rue de Charonne, dotted with restaurants, when he saw a bearded man in a suit exit a car, lifting up and firing a Kalashnikov rifle. He said he saw at least two gunmen, and possibly a third.
“I was so close, maybe two meters from him. He was in a suit, and with the gun, he looked like a gangster. His face wasn’t covered. They didn’t say anything. They were calm, relaxed,” he said. “It was so surreal. There were no shouts, no yelling from anyone. Everyone was just in shock.”
Mr. Jalet then ran in the opposite direction, toward the apartment he was staying in a few blocks away. “I’m traumatized. I just cried and cried. It’s an indescribable violence.”
The most distant attack hit the outskirts of the city, where at least two blasts were heard just outside the Stade de France stadium during a soccer match attended by French President François Hollande.
“We heard two explosions during the game,” said Agnes Ndedi, 35, who attended the game with a group of children from a local football club.
Screams could be heard from the stadium, but the game continued in play until the end, she added.
At the end of the game, as crowds exited the stadium, some came back running toward the entrance.
“We hid in the washroom for a while,” said Christophe Beaupuis, 38, who was attending the game with his two children.
Mr. Beaupuis, along with a group of a dozen people were waiting outside the stadium late Friday night, to be able to get back to their car. “We just want to get home, we don’t feel safe here,” said Mr. Beaupuis, who drove up from the South of France for the game.
The Bataclan nightclub appeared to be the scene of the worst carnage. Witnesses said gunmen executed concertgoers on the floor, and survivors attempted to escape by walking over dead bodies to get to safety.
A 25-year-old woman who was inside the club said the gunmen had been methodical, spraying the room, then pausing to reload their weapons. “I could see people injured and blood on the ground,” said the woman, whose shoes were stained with blood.
“They shot at us for 10 to 15 minutes, said Julien Pearce, an eyewitness speaking on CNN. “They were just standing in the back of the concert room and shooting at us as if we were birds.”
Early Saturday, dozens of ambulances still clustered around the 19th-century pagoda-style concert hall, where police estimated at least 80 and perhaps more than 100 were killed.
Sirens of departing and incoming vehicles could be heard on the boulevard Voltaire, where the concert hall is located not far from Paris’s Place de La Republique.
First conceived in 1864, the Bataclan has lived through multiple iterations, first as a theater hosting ballets and Vaudeville comedians, and later as a cinema, the venue’s website says.
Bataclan has hosted acts including Lou Reed and Prince. More recently, the hall says Snoop Dogg and Robbie Williams have played.
When Friday’s attack occurred, California rock outfit Eagles of Death Metal, known for their bluesy rock and playful, irreverent sense of humor, was playing the venue.
The group in October released their fourth full-length album, “Zipper Down,” which they were promoting in Europe.
“Band members are safe,” said the group’s manager, Marc Pollack. “We are not making any comments and no one is speaking to press. We will issue a statement in the near future.”