Second close call for survivor of Bataclan attack

The family of an Italian man says he had a second lucky escape on Saturday when he emerged from the bloodiest scene of the Paris attacks with only a slight injury, 30 years after surviving the deadly Heysel stadium disaster in Brussels.

Massimiliano Natalucci’s family tells Italian newspaper Corriere Adriatico that the 45-year-old escaped with only scratches on one leg in the Bataclan attack, which left 89 people dead.

A friend who attended the concert by the California rock band Eagles of Death Metal with him was not so lucky, and had to undergo an operation on Saturday after being hit in the shoulder.

“The terrorists were just three metres from them the whole time,” Natalucci’s father tells the paper.

Almost exactly 30 years ago, on May 29, 1985, Natalucci, aged 15, was with his father and uncle at the Heysel stadium in Brussels for the European Cup final when a wall collapsed, killing 39 people.

— AFP