I saved pregnant woman world saw hanging out Bataclan window… now we’re like siblings, says survivor on 10th anniversary

TWO rock fans will today mark ten years since the day they met – when one of them saved the other’s life in the most terrifying setting imaginable.

As gun-wielding IS terrorists rampaged around them massacring 89 people at Paris’s Bataclan music venue, a pregnant woman identified only as Charlotte clung on for life to Sebastien Besatti’s hand as she dangled from a second-floor window.

A dramatic photograph of the rescue was flashed around the world, and today former journalist Sebastien has told how their bond has endured over the decade since then.

He says: “It will never be broken. I’m glad I saved her. The world is a better place with Charlotte in it.”

In a remarkable interview he recalls how he crawled over bloodied bodies to get to the window where Charlotte was hanging as she tried to escape the horrifying attack on November 13, 2015.

And he tells The Sun how saving Charlotte — and her unborn daughter, now nine — is “the proudest moment of my life”.

I gave her
my hand that
night but she has given me her hand 100 times since through her friendship

Sebastien

Understandably Charlotte prefers to maintain her privacy but Sebastien, 44, says he regularly meets her and her daughter for lunch, and was even a guest at her wedding.

He says: “The night at the Bataclan changed my life for ever, not just because of what happened, but because it helped me to be the good guy I always wanted to become.

“I had run for my life and fate threw me to the same window as Charlotte. I could see her hands were slipping, I heard her tell people she was pregnant.

“In that moment I knew I had to try to save her, so I grabbed her elbow and she grabbed my shoulder.

No escape

“I gave her my hand that night, but she has given me her hand 100 times since, through her friendship.

“We go for lunch four or five times a year and she is my friend, my sister, my confidante, she’s been amazing. I’m proud to say she is one of the most important people in my life and we have so much in common.

“I was invited to her wedding, and I’ve met her baby, which was a great honour. At the wedding her mother said, ‘I want to give a special thanks to one man who nothing would have been possible without’.

“It was so touching and in keeping with how warm Charlotte and her wonderful family are to me.”

Sebastien regards the picture of him gripping Charlotte’s hand as an image of defiance against terror.

He adds: “It is a strike of hope into the darkness, and I’m really glad that is the picture’s legacy. I’m glad I could literally lend her a hand.”

This week he and Charlotte embraced at an emotional reunion in Paris to mark the anniversary of the multiple attacks which killed 137 people and injured more than 400.

They had been among 1,500 fans who attended a gig at the Bataclan by US band Eagles Of Death Metal.

Just minutes in, three IS terrorists stormed the venue and opened fire on the audience.

It was part of a wider attack targeting venues across Paris, including the Stade De France, the country’s national stadium.

Sebastien recalls: “When we first heard the gunshots we thought it was part of the show. Then more went off and we knew it wasn’t.

I don’t think
I was aware of
what was happening below me. I look and
I see people lying down, injured,
not moving

Charlotte

“The singer fled, the lights came on and I turned to see two or three guys firing. The first people to be killed were at the bar, where we had just been. I saw a guy next to me take a bullet in the head.

“Some people ran, some dropped to the floor, some hid. My clothes were full of blood as I crawled over bodies to get to an emergency exit. I crossed the stage, hidden behind the black curtain, and saw no escape.

“I was trapped. I sprinted upstairs to the balcony and in front of me there were two windows.”

Outside, hanging from the window over the street, was Charlotte, who just days before had found out she was pregnant with her first child.

Recalling the moment this week, she said: “I’ve seen bins below and in my head, I’d like to get closer to one. A bin will break my fall.

“I don’t think I was aware of what was happening below me. There was a moment when I look and I see people lying down, injured, not moving any more. And then a moment of suspense, where there are no more screams, no more howls — a great moment of silence.

“I call out to people, saying I’m going to fall. The moment I say that I’m pregnant, I feel really guilty because I think, ‘Oh, you’re playing on something’. Yes, I felt guilty for saying that.”

It was then that Sebastien stepped in. He says: “I could see her, she was screaming louder and louder. I saw her hands were about to let go.

“I had to do something to help this woman so I reached over, grabbed her elbow, she wrapped her hands around my shoulder and I managed to pull her up. I remember saying, ‘You are so strong’.

“That moment was a new beginning for me. I was very self-centred at that point and that night broke that circle of self-centeredness.

“I realised I had to do something for someone else. Lots of people had to die for me to live that moment of grace. It was the proudest moment of my life — I’d got her to safety.

“It made me realise what I could be capable of.”

Yet moments later Sebastien was plunged back into terror. He says: “I felt a Kalashnikov pressed against my leg as a terrorist yelled, ‘Get down from there, do what I say and I won’t kill you’.

“They led us to the first floor to watch them fire at people in front of the stage. The terrorists laughed.

“They held a dozen of us hostage, ordering us to call news channels to tell them they had explosive vests and if they saw officers closing in they would detonate them.

Very poignant

“Those minutes remain the longest of my life. I closed my eyes and prayed to go in peace.”

Eventually armed police entered the building and a gun battle ensued, in which the three terrorists were killed.

Sebastien got to safety and his heroics only dawned on him days later at a wedding, where people told him how they had seen the image of a man saving a woman from falling.

He thought he would never see Charlotte again — until he saw a plea on social media for the man who saved the pregnant woman to come forward, and the following month they had an emotional reunion.

Sebastien says: “It was one of the great moments of my life. I literally felt like I knew Charlotte all my life.

“It was immediately your brother- and-sister-like relationship. I realised we were like part of the family.”

For Charlotte, like Sebastien, life after the attack was hard. After her daughter’s birth she travelled the world to try to escape the tragedy and restore her faith in humanity.

Sebastien respects her wish for privacy and says: “I understand it.

“She is so humble and so strong. She has been there for me so many times since.”

When the bullets were flying around me, I realised that this was a response to what we had done as a western world

Sebastien

The Bataclan reopened the following year but Sebastien says: “To me it is still a mortuary. Part of me, I feel, is still in that pit where bullets were raining down on us.

“I will never be able to go back because of what I experienced there. I know Charlotte is the same.”

Today they will join other survivors at Paris’s Garden of Memory to mark the tenth anniversary.

He says: “It will be very poignant. It will be an active defiance that we are still here and that we are a family. It is redemption time for us.

“We are still living. The three terrorists who did this are dead. I felt like I was a sacrifice at the Bataclan.

“When I was standing in front of the terrorists I felt like a sacrifice for my country, for the things that they had done in other countries. In that moment I felt like we were at war.

“When the bullets were flying around me, I realised that this was a response to what we had done as a western world.”

After the massacre Sebastien found love with 2017 London Bridge terror attack survivor Christine Delcros, whose partner Xavier Thomas died after the terrorists’ van struck him, knocking him into the Thames.

Although they are no longer an item, she still plays a huge role in Sebastien’s life and he says: “Meeting Christine was quite incredible. We’re still very close.

“She and Charlotte are so special to me. I cannot always be the good person that I was when I helped Charlotte that night.

“Looking back it was one of the biggest honours of my life to be able to save Charlotte and her unborn baby. It’s proof that after such a terrible attack, life goes on.”