Heriot-Watt staff member survives Bataclan attack

She hid in the cellar for three hours


Christine Tudhope, a public relations officer at Heriot-Watt, and her friend Mariesha Jack, survived the attack on the Bataclan which killed 89 people, by hiding in the drinks cellar for over three hours as gunmen walked above them.

The US rock group Eagles of Death Metal were playing to a full house of 1,500 people at the Bataclan.

At around 9:50pm, an hour into the band’s show, gunmen wielding AK-47s and wearing suicide vests entered the hall and began to fire calmly and methodically at the hoards of terrified concert-goers. Christine revealed how the pair had ran for their lives as the attackers stormed the auditorium.

Speaking to The Sun, Christine said: “There were a lot of bangs in quick succession. Mariesha realised what was happening. We were feet away from the bullets.”

Christine Tudhope’s instagram, just prior to the attack

Losing their bearings, the two ended up in the drinks cellar beneath the venue.

They hid there for three hours as the attackers struck mercilessly above them. Mariesha Jack told The Sun: “It started as a stampede of people running and screaming, then it was automatic gunfire like a machine gun.

“We heard a dull ‘thud, thud, thud’ of bodies hitting the ground above us. There were screams like they were torturing people.”

Christine Tudhope

“Then there was a really loud thud which we realise was them detonating their suicide bombs.”

All-in-all the siege lasted two hours and forty minutes as French police raided the theatre and rescued the remaining hostages. Mariesha said: “At one point, a big military guy patted me down and said, ‘You can cry now – you’re safe.”

On Saturday night, Usher Hall was lit up with the colours of the Tricolor in solidarity with the people of Paris.

Usher Hall lights up in solidarity with France (Credit: Inês Mulford)