This nurse, who called himself David, said he instinctively sought to help the wounded in the chaos of the explosion at the Comptoir Voltaire cafe. Photo / YouTube
This nurse, who called himself David, said he instinctively sought to help the wounded in the chaos of the explosion at the Comptoir Voltaire cafe. Photo / YouTube
Incredible footage has emerged from the Paris attacks showing the moment a Parisian nurse tried to save the life of a man who was badly injured in the cafe attack only to realise that he was the suicide bomber.
The nurse, who called himself David, said he instinctively sought to help the wounded in the chaos of the explosion at the Comptoir Voltaire cafe.
David, who works at a hospital in Paris, tried to save the bomber Brahim Abdeslam, who can be seen in the video lying unconscious amid the overturned chairs.
Near them, another person lies wounded on the floor amid spatters of blood from the deadly blast.
''There was a huge flame, there was dust. I immediately thought it was the heaters. I screamed, 'cut off the gas','' he said, recalling the nightmare evening.
Initially he thought the explosion may have been caused by a gas leak but his fears worsened as ''people started running out''.
His nursing training kicked in and David, 46, began CPR to try to revive the injured man for a few minutes before making the shocking discovery.
It was only when he tore open the man's T-shirt that he realised what he initially thought was a gas explosion at the cafe close to the Bataclan music hall was actually something far worse.
The Comptoir Voltaire cafe two days after the attack. Photo / Getty
''There were wires; one white, one black, one red and one orange. Four different colours. I knew then he was a suicide bomber,'' he told Reuters.
The man David was trying to resuscitate was Brahim Abdeslam, one of the eight terrorists involved in the deadly attacks that killed 130 people at the Stade de France, cafes, restaurants and a music hall.
David says he did not see Abdeslam walk into the restaurant. He believes he had been sitting on the terrace when he detonated the bomb.
''He had a large opening on his side, about 30cm,'' he said. ''When you lift a T-shirt and you see wires, you know that's not normal.''
David says police told him that Abdeslam's bomb had not fully exploded.
''[Later], I was thinking about how I lay him on the floor, with me doing CPR. It's a pretty vigorous process. By just doing that, I also could have been gone,'' he said.
''The first wire I saw was red. I think that was the detonator. There was something at the end,'' David said.
Just after he realised the person he was trying to save had tried to kill him, the fire services arrived, David said.
Among them was a fireman he knew. He told him what he had just seen.
''He looked at me and started shouting for everyone to evacuate,'' said David.
Authorities across Europe are trying to determine how a network of primarily French and Belgian attackers carried out the deadly attacks in Paris.
Brussels was home to the suspected organiser of the November 13 Paris attacks, Abdelhamid Abaaoud, who was killed in a dramatic police shootout at a flat in the St Denis suburb of Paris during a police raid on Wednesday morning.
He died alongside Hasna Ait Boulahcen, 26. She was originally thought to have blown herself up in the Saint Denis gun siege, but was actually killed when another member of her terrorist cell let off a bomb as armed officers attempted to storm the third-floor property, police said.
Security officers continue to hunt for the suspected eighth gunman, Saleh Abdeslam, 26 - it was his brother Brahim, that nurse David had been trying to save.
