A hostage held at gunpoint by Cherif and Said Kouachi has given an astonishing account of how he joked with the killers – even though he was terrified they would kill him and his colleagues.
At one point Michel Catalano even dressed a bullet wound for one of the terrorist brothers in order to divert attention from a workmate hiding in a cardboard box, who had made clandestine contact with police surrounding the building.
Mr Catalano told The Mail on Sunday he thought he was going to die after the murderous jihadis turned his printworks on an industrial estate near Paris into the scene of their bloody last stand.
His heroic story and extraordinary eyewitness account sounds more like something from a Hollywood thriller than a real-life drama. At one point a salesman even turned up and shook hands with one of the heavily armed killers before being sent on his way.
Mr Catalano calmly described to The Mail on Sunday how he told his graphic designer Lilian Lepere to hide when he saw from his first-floor window that France’s most wanted men had arrived at his humble premises.
Unknown to the brothers, Mr Lepere relayed secret information to police from his hiding place in a box before they stormed the industrial site in Dammartin-en-Goele, a small town just north of the French capital.
About an hour after being held hostage, fugitives finally let Mr Catalano walk free. Several hours later the brothers were mown down by massed ranks of police surrounding the nondescript white building on Rue Clement Ader.
The terrifying saga began soon after Mr Catalano opened his Creation Tendance Decouverte office on Friday morning. France was in trauma after the massacre in Paris and transfixed by a three-day manhunt for the killers.
Mr Catalano was sitting in his first-floor office at 9am when he heard a ring on the doorbell. Expecting a salesman, he asked his 27-year-old colleague Mr Lepere to let the caller in.
Then he glanced through his office window – and what he saw through the rain chilled him. ‘It was like a movie,’ he said.
‘They were standing there with a rocket launcher and a Kalashnikov and I thought, “I am going to die.”
‘I rushed out of my office and went downstairs to tell Lilian to hide in the kitchen upstairs.’
By this point the two fugitives being hunted across France had strolled into the building, clad in combat gear and carrying their weapons, and seen the petrified owner. ‘They asked me very calmly if they could have some water and I was trying to be cool so I said I could make them some coffee,’ said Mr Catalano.
As he went to make coffee, he reflected that he was caught in an almost unbelievable situation – trapped with two terrorists on the run after killing 12 people at Charlie Hebdo in a terrifying onslaught that had shocked the world.
The pair fled there on foot after evading a huge police dragnet by hijacking a Peugeot 206 driven by a woman teacher, and took refuge in the printworks after a 30-mile pursuit along the N2 trunk road.
Mr Catalano's two children and his wife Veronique looking distraught outside their home yesterday after they nearly lost their father and husband in a siege by the two fugitives
‘I brought them the coffee and they were very respectful, calling me Monsieur, like gentlemen,’ said Mr Catalano.
He said he asked them to spare Stefan, his factory manager, who was also there – and the jihadis surprisingly agreed.
‘The salesman whose appointment I was expecting also turned up and the terrorists told him to go.
The graphic designer clambered into a cardboard box in the kitchen, which was on the first floor at the back of the plant’s two-storey office, and sent a desperate text to his father from his mobile phone.
His dramatic message read: ‘I am hidden on the first floor. I think they have killed everyone. Tell the police to intervene.’
‘He understood what was going on and left.’
Incredibly, the salesman, Didier, shook hands with both the businessman and one of the terrorists, thinking he was an armed police officer in his bulletproof vest until the man said: ‘We don’t kill civilians.’
Hostage Michel Catalano said the men responsible for the Charlie Hebdo attack called him 'Monsieur'
After another ten tense minutes had passed, Cherif – the younger brother – bizarrely asked Mr Catalano to call the security forces to explain that he was being held hostage.
‘I phoned the police and told them,’ he said. ‘The brothers were not aggressive at all. They spoke to me very calmly. They seemed focused.
‘I made a joke because Stefan had left the door open – I closed it and said we wanted to keep the heat in because it costs money. I was trying to be calm.’
A few minutes later the first police arrived, surrounding the printworks, sealing off the small rural community of 8,500 people and ordering locals to stay indoors and turn off all lights.
Hundreds of children at infant and primary schools less than half a mile away from where the killers were holed up were hastily evacuated. The Kouachi brothers went outside and, opening the front door, shouted to security forces not to shoot since they had a hostage. Helicopters filled with armed troops were beginning to buzz over the building.
‘I went upstairs to my office and thought about trying to speak to Lilian but it was too risky,’ said Mr Catalano.
‘I heard someone come in the front door and I wasn’t sure if it was the police or terrorists.
‘It was the brothers and they came up the stairs and called out “Sir, where are you?” I came out and said, “It’s OK, I’m here.” That seemed to reassure them.
‘I asked if I could leave and they said the police would probably shoot me. They told me, “Don’t worry, you will live.”’
Five minutes later came another tortuous twist: the jihadis asked if anyone else was in the building – unaware Mr Lepere had been keeping police stealthily informed about events from inside his box.
‘I lied and said no but they started looking around,’ said Mr Catalano. ‘I kept trying to talk to them in order to keep them distracted so they wouldn’t find Lilian.’
Noticing that the older brother, Said, was injured, the businessman said he could help.
He found a first aid kit and put a bandage on his neck, which took a couple of attempts to secure. The terrorist then admitted he had been in a gun battle with police earlier.
‘After I patched him up, I asked a third time if I could go and the younger one said yes.’
Mr Catalano broke down in tears as he recalled the nightmarish decision whether to take the risk of mentioning there was another person in the building.
‘Lilian is the same age as my son and it would have been traumatic for me if they had killed him,’ he said.
‘I was terrified they would discover him. I decided he would have a better chance of survival if they didn’t know he was there and I walked out the front door.
Lilian Lepere, 27, hid in a cardboard box inside the building and kept police updated with text messages
‘The whole ordeal took about an hour – there was not a single moment when I didn’t think I was going to die but for some reason I also knew they wouldn’t hurt me. It was very strange.
‘I stayed with the police the rest of the day and they were communicating with Lilian during the rest of the siege.
‘He told them he was still hiding and that made me very happy.’
For more than six hours, Mr Lepere passed on crucial information until the siege ended in a bloody shootout. The Kouachis, having vowed to die as martyrs, burst out with guns blazing and were cut down in a hail of bullets.
As France realised the nightmare was over, Mr Lepere emerged unscathed from the shootout and was taken to a psychological assessment unit where it is understood he was to be reunited with his family last night.
So how did Mr Catalano feel about the two brothers who held him, his colleagues – and in many ways his entire country – captive now they were dead?
‘I am happy to be alive and I cannot say if I am happy they are dead,’ he replied. ‘They must have had some humanity because they kept me alive.
‘Afterwards I spent the night reading texts from loved ones and that has been a great help. It has been a difficult time.’
Now the phlegmatic businessman just wants a return to normality after his unwanted role at the dark centre of France’s bloody and brutal drama. ‘I have to get back to running my factory.
‘I need to be strong for my family and for my staff. Life goes on.’
Source:TheDailymail
