Australian ambassador Stephen Brady's account of the terror night
Chefs are often wary of souffles – but an Aussie chef may owe his life to one. On Friday night, the in-house chef at Australia's embassy in Paris had been planning to go out and catch some music – at the Bataclan concert hall.
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But instead he was ordered to come into the embassy and prepare a meal for the ambassador and guests: roast chicken with salsify and spinach, and a black pepper souffle.
"Had he not been here, he said to me, he would have been there in the theatre and potentially a victim," ambassador Stephen Brady told Fairfax in an exclusive interview. Read on
Woman dangles from Bataclan Concert Hall windowsill
A woman who spent at least 2½ harrowing minutes dangling from a windowsill above the Bataclan concert hall appeared to be pregnant.
Between desperate grasps of the window frame the woman can be heard screaming "Aide im enceinte!" ("Help, I'm pregnant!") while volleys of gunfire crack down the Passage of Saint Pierre Amelot. Read the full story
French warplanes strike Islamic State stronghold in Syria
French fighter jets launched their biggest raids in Syria to date, targeting the Islamic State's stronghold in Raqqa just two days after the group claimed responsibility for coordinated attacks in Paris that killed 129 people, the defence ministry said.
The moment shots rang out | video
The terrifying moment that gunmen opened fire on Paris' Bataclan concert hall has been captured on camera.
The new video shows Eagles of Death Metal band members fleeing for cover halfway through a song as a crackle of shots fired through the theatre filled with 1500 revellers.
"The last notes before the gunfire, panic and horror," wrote the video's author, Sebastien Snow, who posted it to Instagram on Sunday night.
As the sound of gunfire rang out just after 10pm on Friday the band's drummer, Julian Dorio, can be seen frantically ducking behind his drum kit, while a guitarist runs for cover to the left of stage.
Another of the band members, Dave Catching, freezes on the spot, as the first shots that would end with the death of 88 fans and one of their crew members rang out.
A friend who attempted to resuscitate Nick Alexander, the Eagles of Death Metal merchandising manager who was killed in the attack, said the initial sound of bullets ricocheting of walls almost blended in with the music.
"We heard a couple of noises outside, and people started running into the club. We didn't know what was going on," Helen Wilson told The Telegraph.
"Then maybe five, six guys came in with machine guns and shotguns and just started shooting people. It was mayhem," she said.
Australian John Leader, who escaped from the Bataclan with his 12-year-old son Oscar said that two of the gunmen stood three metres from the rear of the venue and fired in the direction of the stage.
"They were very calm, very methodical, very slow," Mr Leader told the ABC.
"I watched the guy reloading. The person knew what he was doing. He wasn't panicking," he said.
"This was practised. They weren't in there shooting like in an American movie. At no point did they put the guns on full automatic. It was only semi automatic with pauses between the shots."
"It was finding a target and then shooting and then finding the next target and then shooting."
"It seemed to me very silent. There was a real sense of everybody merging into a silent and non-moving mass. It was very surreal . . . It was clear if you move you're dead."