A young Italian woman narrowly escaped death in the November 13 Paris attacks in which 130 people including Italian Valeria Solesin were killed, the Daily Mail has reported.
Barbara Serpentini, 18, and her friend Sophia Bejali were sitting at an outside table at the Cosa Nostra pizzeria when jihadi gunmen got out of a black Seat and began spraying the restaurant with bullets, killing a man who had come to collect a takeaway pizza. The pair hid under a table for safety but video footage has subsequently shown how one gunman took aim at them and pulled the trigger, only to discover that his Ak47 was either empty or jammed. "We both thought he hadn't seen us. I didn't realise we were so close to being killed," Serpentini, a political science and philosophy student in central Paris, told the newspaper.
"At one point I looked up because one of the shooters stopped shooting and I just looked in front of me and I saw these feet. He had black sneakers on, he stayed for a long time in front of me - it must have been a few seconds but it felt like a long time. I didn't want our eyes to meet so I hid my eyes again. He was a few centimetres away, about 20cm away from me," she added.
After the gunmen had moved away the women sought safety in a nearby building.
"I feel lucky for the women in the video but I cannot believe that is me. I know it sounds crazy but I see myself from the outside. I feel happy for the person who this happened to," Serpentini said.
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