Hostages Hid In Unusual Places To Survive Paris Attacks

Showing quick thinking and good instincts, several hostages were able to survive Friday’s attacks in Paris by hiding in unusual locations. When a Parisian printing business was besieged by the brothers believed to have been responsible for the Charlie Hebdo massacre, an employee hid upstairs in the company’s canteen.

As Yahoo! News reported, the employee identified as Lilian, a 26-year-old graphic designer, was terrified as he hid beneath a sink. However, he managed to remain calm and sent texts to the police containing “tactical elements,” like his location inside of the building. He was also able to communicate with a family member via text.

As Lilian stay hidden, he was able to get information from the suspects as he could hear them talking. He sent some of the information he was able to hear to the police stationed outside. The brothers, identified as Cherif and Said Kouachi, were trapped in the building and had a large cache of weapons with them.

About 40 kilometers from the printing business, in a kosher supermarket in Vincennes, a father and his young son hid in the store’s refrigerator after an ally of the Kouachi brothers, identified as Amedy Coulibaly, burst into the store and pulled out a Kalashnikov. A Kalashnikov is a type of submachine gun or rifle similar to an AK-47.

The father, whose name is Ilan, hid with three other hostages and his young son in the refrigerator for over five hours. They may have been aided by a young store clerk named Lassana Bathily. According to the Daily Mail, the 24-year-old Mali immigrant to France was able to help about 15 people escape the supermarket.

When interviewed by BMFTV, Bathily shyly recounted helping the hostages hide.

“When they ran down, I opened the door [of the freezer]. There are several people who came to me. I turned off the light, I turned off the freezer. When I turned off the cold, I put them [hostages] in, I closed the door, I told them to stay calm.”

He was able to escape using one of the store’s lifts and ran outside to safety. He was also able to give police information about what was going on inside of the store, including where the gunman was hiding. As the Inquisitr reported, four other hostages were killed in the store and later, while charging a police unit, Coulibaly was also shot dead. Coulibaly had also killed a woman police officer the day before he took over the store.

[Image via breakingnews.ie]