He is known simply as Matthew and is an American. He was inside the Bataclan concert hall when terrorists struck, killing 89 people in the deadliest of penultimate Friday’s coordinated terror attacks on six different centres in Paris, France.
However, this 36-year-old man was twice lucky. He was also around the World Trade Centre in New York when al-Qaeda jihadists crashed a plane into one of the Twin buildings on September 11, 2001.
At the Bataclan, Matthew said he played dead after he had been shot in the calf, before he was rescued by Le Monde journalist Daniel Psenny, who was in his own house located close to the Bataclan but rushed across the street on seeing him (Matthew) dragging himself across the street.
Psenny was then shot in the arm by a terrorist who spotted him trying to help Matthew.
In an interview with the French newspaper Le Monde, Matthew recounted his ordeal at the Bataclan.
He said: “I inched forward centimetre by centimetre. At one point, I saw the ledge of the exit at arm’s reach.
“I was able to grip it with one finger, then the other.
“I was playing dead,” Matthew said. “When I felt someone dragging me by the arms, I didn’t even look up. I said, or at least in my head – ‘I love you, my angel.'”
When asked about his experience at the World Trade Centre, Matthew said: “I sprinted across half of Manhattan.”
“But what I went through in the Bataclan was 1,000 times worse,” he noted.