In the horror of terrorist attacks, heroes often emerge.
The one from Moscow will undoubtedly be the young Islam Khalilov.
The composure of this 15-year-old teenager employed in the changing rooms of Crocus City Hall undoubtedly saved around a hundred people from the bullets of terrorists on Friday evening, who killed at least 137 Russians including 3 children during this claimed “
Russian
Bataclan”.
by the Islamic State.
“I didn't leave anyone behind,”
assures, without an ounce of pride, the young boy on Russian television
Zvezda news.
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On the evening of March 22, Islam, an employee of the Crocus town hall, was assigned to the changing rooms of the concert hall.
When the four terrorists arrive in the performance hall and start shooting at the crowd, the teenager first thinks it is a drunken group making noise.
“When people started running out towards the escalator, I understood that there was an attack,”
he told Russian television.
“At that moment, instinct kicked in (...) I understood that if I remained in a state of shock, I could lose my life and that of hundreds of people.”
“Everyone there!”
In the general panic, Islam keeps his cool.
He begins to harangue the public in the hall, indicating an escape route.
“This way, this way, this way!”,
we hear him shouting on a video taken himself using his phone which he holds in one hand, while he leads dozens of people down a corridor to an emergency exit.
“Everyone goes through this!
Everyone there!”
, he urges to the fugitives, taking care to bring up the rear himself.
Interviewed by Russian television on Sunday, the young boy, dressed in a sweatshirt, explains that he simply followed the instructions given to the establishment's staff to act in the event of an emergency.
He does not believe he acted like a hero, but considers that he
“just did his job”
.
His courage is praised by the international press.
In his commune, one of the local leaders of the Muslim community, Mufti Cheikh Ravil Gainutdin, awarded him a prize to salute his gesture.