‘We survived Paris’

AS security fears intensify in Europe in the wake of last Friday’s Paris attacks, a former Port Shepstone woman, Claire Brocklehurst (nee Gutzeit) and her family try to carry on with their lives while living in a country gripped by fear.

The attacks left 129 dead and 99 fighting for their lives after bombs and shootings took place at a concert hall, sports stadium and restaurants. Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve said on Tuesday this week that more than a hundred raids on suspected militants had been carried out. Germany cancelled a football match against Holland in Hanover after receiving ‘information’ about a terror threat. French police are now hunting down those thought to be the masterminds behind the killings.

Claire, her husband, Alex and their sons, Eli (two-and-a half ) and Lucas (one) live in Paris, a mere 20 minutes away from where the ‘night of terror’ unfolded. That evening the couple had planned to go out with friends, but cancelled as her husband felt tired.

Claire moved to London in 2007, where she met her husband. Owing to work the couple has travelled the world and, in April this year, moved to Paris after living in New York for less than three years.

“It was about 10.30pm and I was getting into bed when I heard police sirens and helicopters,” she said. ”At that stage I didn’t know how bad it was until I checked my cellphone and turned on the TV. We stayed up all night as we were afraid.”

“It was chaotic, a friend of mine told me that people were jumping into cars to escape the gunmen who drove in a car shooting with AK-47s. How do you outrun a bullet?” she asked.

In the wake of the attack, thousands of people across the world sent messages to their loved ones in Paris to find out if they were safe and unharmed.

Claire’s parents, Des and Louise Gutzeit, who reside in Oslo Beach, were concerned and her mother rang her late that night after watching the news.

“It’s hard being so far away from them,” Claire added. She explained that she is part of a ‘moms’ group’ on facebook and, while the support was great, people were generally scared to take their children to school.

This week the Eiffel Tower reopened to tourists but was closed again for fear of another terrorist attack. Claire felt it was too early to go down and pay her respects. “I won’t go near it for now, I’m just too scared,” she said. “The streets are morbid, some of the shops are closed, and the area is quiet.” She explained that, prior to the attacks, she never once felt unsafe living in Paris.

But now, she says, “France is at war.” It’s been reported as being the worst attack on a European target since the Madrid bombings in 2004, when 190 people were killed and more than 1 800 wounded in four coordinated attacks on commuter trains. It is also the second terrorist attack on Paris this year, after gunmen killed journalists at the magazine Charlie Hebdo, a policewoman and several people in an attack on a supermarket.

According to IntelCenter, a counterterrorism intelligence organisation that monitors jihadist websites, the Paris attacks are the second most deadly terrorist attacks in a western city since 9/11, based on early casualty numbers of at least 100 killed.

On Monday morning, Claire was walking from a grocery store with her young boys. “I was pushing Lucas in a stroller and Eli was walking next to me when a policeman swooped up Eli in his arms and told me to go home immediately,” she said. “I was unaware we were in the middle of an anti-terrorist raid. My heart skipped a beat.”

During a telephonic interview on Tuesday this week, Claire told the Herald that she had to go to French lessons that afternoon, but was nervous about taking the train or leaving her children behind. “We are staying away from tourist spots and large crowd gatherings,” she added.

Do the Brocklehursts plan to leave Paris? “We’ll stay,” she said. “We can’t run away from this. The whole world is in turmoil.”