A Kenora councilor and his son are safely back in Canada after a narrow brush with Friday’s suicide bombings that killed three people outside the Stade de France in Paris.
Coun. Mort Goss and his son Nate made an unscheduled return to Paris two days early for the Germany-France friendly soccer game that would wrap up the pair's three-week European vacation.
“Nate and I walked right past that McDonalds that got blown up maybe 10 minutes before it happened,” Mort said.
Soldiers with machine guns were directing foot traffic before Mort and Nate even reached the Stade de France. Fans around them were complaining over security and searches as they waited in line.
When the Gosses reached their "phenomenal seats," Mort noticed an intense security presence as guards stood only a few metres apart, their eyes panning through the crowd.
Fifteen minutes into the game, two explosions rocked the stadium.
“We were at field level and there’s a whole 80,000 people in the arena so you could still hear that from outside. It was really percussive.”
Mort's wife in Kenora and other son Aaron in Winnipeg were trying to reach their family members but there was no cell signal in the building. The crowd was still unaware an historic attack had occurred outside when the game ended.
Security diverted fans on the bottom level from the nearby entrance the Gosses had used to come in.
“We walked another quarter-mile or so. We’re talking in a crowd that’s shoulder to shoulder – like uncomfortable shoulder to shoulder,” Mort recalled.
“Suddenly, there was a lot of screaming and people started running from another direction right at us – right into the crowd.”
Mort fell into Nate and grabbed onto his son to keep his feet under him as they were crammed against the concrete wall.
“Looking back at it, I think they might have jammed the Internet going in because nobody seemed to be reacting to it at all,” he said.
“I think somebody heard something about a bomb or something because these people came at us screaming. I don’t know where that came out of but that was some of the most terrifying of the whole works. We could have very easily been crushed.”
Security opened a nearby entrance to allow some people outside.
“We stood there behind some pillars for a while because we didn’t know if people were coming with guns or knives or what the hell was going on.”
Helicopters whirled overhead as sirens and emergency lights flooded the streets. Hundreds of police officers blocked off every corner. Hotels near the stadium weren’t allowing anyone in or out.
It would be three hours before pedestrians or vehicles would be allowed to leave the scene.
Mort and Nate slept only two hours before boarding their scheduled plane back to Canada on Saturday morning. Still short on sleep and shocked by the event, Mort said he hadn’t digested the incident by Saturday night.
“It’s a sad thing because I don’t think I’ve ever experienced a city that beautiful,” he said.
“It’s absolutely stunning. My first time there and I was just blown away by the civility, the openness. It was really sad to see that compromised.”
