PARIS ATTACKS: Hostage made jokes with Islamic State killers to ease tension in Bataclan theatre

The pregnant woman who was pulled to safety as she hung from a window at Bataclan theatre has told how her saviour tried to make jokes with the Islamic State (IS) killers in a bid to defuse tension with the killers.

The woman’s fate was unknown for days. However, not only did she survive the attacks, she has also traced the man who rescued her.

Her hero, Sébastien, said he had hidden on a stairwell but was spotted by a gunman and “felt the barrel of a Kalashnikov against my leg”.

Sébastien recounted a terrifying yet bizarre ordeal before police launched their final assault.

“Of course I tried humour, I had to try and defuse the bomb,” he told RTL.

“At one stage, a girl said she was cold and asked for a sweater, so an attacker responded by throwing her one.

"So then I said I was getting a tad cold and could do with a shirt.

"Taking the tone of a rather strict teacher, he told me I was starting to annoy him.”

“I knew that at any moment a misplaced or badly interpreted word could end in death.

When you see that they get annoyed when you answer back, you realise that they don’t have any humour.

“There was a sort of exchange and the hostages thanked me for it at the end.

"I don’t want to pass myself off as a hero, the real heroes died, but there was a sort of a dialogue.”

Sébastien believes the gunman belatedly realised the value of life, which is why he survived.

He said that at one point one of the hostage takers asked a group of terrified hostages: “Do you agree with what we did?”

He asked the question shortly before before triggering his explosive belts.

“They just ended doing their preach, explaining they were doing that for Syria, for Iraq, for us to understand what it feels like to kill civilians,” Sébastien told RTL.

Then one of the attackers asked him for a lighter.

“They held out a wad of cash and asked me if I cared about money. They got got out a wad of €50 notes,” he said.

“Then, they asked me to burn it with my lighter.”

“From the moment the attacker started talking, I thought that maybe I was destined to live, because it was so easy for him to kill at that moment.”

Sébastien also described the last minutes of the siege, saying the hostages were told to shout at approaching police officers to move back.

“It’s the only real request they formulated four or five times to the police officers,” he said.

“[They asked] for the officers not to come closer.”

“They realised too late that life was important, they wanted to flee but it was too late,” he said.