Khaled Saadi Ndiaye and Gregory Reibenberg marched together for loved ones killed in Paris attacks

Halima Saadi Ndiaye was in a cafe where her brother worked celebrating her 36th birthday when terror took over. Within a minute, she was dead. Within hours, her sister Hodda was, too.

Her brother Khaled tried in vain to save them.

The memory tortures him, along with worry about the future of his neighbourhood, a place proud of its diversity and tolerance.

French-born siblings with Tunisian roots and family in Senegal, the Saadis embody that ideal.

After Friday’s attacks by Islamic extremists, they worry about a backlash against Muslims and other minorities.

The cafe’s majority shareholder, Gregory Reibenberg, is Jewish, and a friend of Saadi’s family.

Reibenberg lost his wife in the attack, and he and Saadi marched together over the weekend in memory of their loved ones.

“We are all inhabitants of this, people, and we need to fight for each other and help each other.

"There were black people, Arabs, Jews there. All of us were hit. So we are all in the same boat,” said another brother, Abdallah, who flew in from Tunisia .

The attack took place around 9:30pm . La Belle Équipe was full.

“There were three birthdays, including my sister’s,” Khaled Saadi recounted, tears surfacing.

Then, “they came and started shooting everyone inside and outside”.

“I lay on the ground on my stomach hoping to avoid the bullets,” he said.

“When I heard that there was no more shooting, I raised my head, but they started shooting again, so I hid again.”

After a minute that felt like eternity, the guns fell silent. He stood and found two of his sisters, along with friends and colleagues, in pools of blood.

“My first move was to look for my two sisters. So I found the first one, Halima Saadi. She died on the spot,” he said.

“And my second sister Hodda, I tried to save her.

“I moved her with a friend of hers named Sam. We moved her to another restaurant nearby, and then we did the same for my other sister,” he said.

They talked to Hodda, who was barely breathing, and assured her they were there.

Emergency services were on the scene within about 20 minutes but told him there was little hope. He later learned she died on arrival in hospital.

Reibenberg’s wife died in his arms.

“I was holding her hand. We couldn’t revive her. We couldn’t do anything more,” he told France-2 television.