How a Parisian teen lived the hostage taking of January 9th

Hello everyone,

As all of you probably know, there was a hostage taking at Porte de Vincennes yesterday.

Well, my best friend lives on that metro line - very precisely one metro stop away from Vincennes. And they go to school about a mile away from where the hostages were taken. I learnt that yesterday through them : they sent me a text saying they had to evacuate the classrooms and they were all together in a hall. So of course, I asked what was going on, and they told me "Hostage taking around Porte de Vincennes, I think there are victims, we heard police cars and maybe ambulances.". So I panicked and called them, and when I could finally talk with them, quarter of an hour later, I was a little bit reassured, but not as much as I had hoped.
They got home safely, but were very shocked, and this is a text they wrote about it : "It was an terrible day. We heard the police cars while we were in class, but we didn't know what it was. And then we learned and everyone started texting their friends who were closer because they were scared and I was texting as well, and the police cars, and everyone trying to reassure everyone, and we were outside because we couldn"t go back in our classes, and then going back and waiting for the news, the texts, the calls. And for hours the sound of the police cars. And learning about the victims."

So please, all of you, think about how lucky we are to be in Marseille, where nothing has happened for now, where we can go in and out of school how we want, where we didn't have to be scared of a terrorist attack every single minute of the last three days.

Je Suis Charlie,

Judith