Paris: In what can be described as an incredible survival story, an American man has not just escaped the devastating terror attacks in Paris last week but had also cheated death in the outrageous 9/11 attacks in New York more than a decade ago to tell his own side of the story.
Matthew, 36, was at the Eagles of Death Metal gig in Bataclan on the night of the attacks in Paris. He was shot in the leg by the attackers, but pretended to be dead. He then dragged himself to safety as the killers reloaded their weapons.
"I inched forward centimetre by centimetre. At one point, I saw the ledge of the exit at arm's reach," a media report quoted him as saying.
He further said, "I was able to grip it with one finger, then the other."
"I was playing dead. 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," Matthew added.
According to a report, Le Monde journalist Daniel Psenny, who found Matthew outside, was able to drag him to safety, but was shot and injured by one of the gunmen as he did so. Psenny said that he had acted "instinctively".
"I had the human reflex not to let someone die in front of me, but it was the circumstances that allowed it," Psenny said.
The two remained in the Psenny's flat for hours before police allowed local residents to leave the building and the injured pair were taken by ambulance to George Pompidou hospital.
It has emerged that Matthew's lucky escape was his second. He had been heading to a work meeting when a United Airlines plane struck one of the twin towers in New York during the September 11 attacks in 2001.
