Paris attacks: Woman lay still among the dead as gunmen 'circled like vultures'

Isobel Bowdery. Photo / Facebook

A woman who survived the massacre inside the Bataclan Theatre has described playing dead for up to an hour as the gunmen circled them "like vultures'' shooting anyone who moved.

In a harrowing post on Facebook, 22-year-old Isobel Bowdery described how she held her breath at times and thought about about her loved ones as she lay among the dead.

"Dozens of people were shot right in front of me. Pools of blood filled the floor. Cries of grown men who held their girlfriends' dead bodies pierced the small music venue.

"Shocked and alone, I pretended to be dead for over an hour, lying among people who could see their loved ones motionless. Holding my breath and trying to not move, not cry - not giving those men the fear they longed to see,'' she wrote.

"This world is cruel and acts like this are supposed to highlight the depravity of humans. The images of those men circling us like vultures will haunt me for the rest of my life. The way they meticulously aimed at [and] shot people around the standing area I was in the centre of without any consideration for human life. It didn't feel real.''

Isobel Bowdery posted this picture to Facebook of her top stained with blood. Photo / Facebook

Miss Bowdery included a photo of her blood-streaked top she wore to the Eagles of Death Metal concert; which she had gone to with her boyfriend - who she later found after 45 minutes of not knowing whether he was alive or not.

She said at one point, a man risked his own life to partly shield her from the gunmen as she cried; while a couple's last words of love kept her believing in the good in the world.

Miss Bowdery went on to pay tribute to those she hailed as heroes and also sent a message to the families and friends of those people who were killed in the mass killings.

"Truly believing that I would join them, I promise that their last thoughts were not on the animals who caused all this. It was thinking of the people they loved. As I lay down in the blood of strangers and waiting for my bullet to end my mere 22 years, I envisioned every face that I have ever loved and whispered 'I love you' over and over again.

"Reflecting on the highlights of my life, wishing that those I love knew just how much, wishing that they knew that no matter what happened to me - to keep believing in the good in people and to not let those men win.''