Trapped in his flat inside the police cordon, eyewitness Ian Ayres watched the deadly end to the Paris supermarket siege
8:54AM GMT 11 Jan 2015
A resident of the Jewish quarter of Le Marais, in Paris’ fourth arrondissement for over 20 years, Ian Ayers felt lucky that he had not been in his former home of New York City when terrorists struck on 9/11.
France seemed like a much safer place so when, on Friday January 9, he found himself forced to stay inside his flat by police who were dealing with a seige at the nearby Hyper Cacher, kosher supermarket, he was surprised and scared.
“The police cars were blocking off all the streets and then I saw the Swat teams come by” he said.
Mr Ayers opened his window to get a better look down the street and was immediately ordered to close it and stay inside by police.
Watching the scene unfold on television, he could hear the gunshots and explosions outside echoed in the news footage onscreen.
Left shaken by how close terrorism had come to his home Mr Ayers said of the crime scene after its deadly resolution, “was like the end of the world”.
