PARIS terrorist Amedy Coulibaly was carrying a GoPro camera, a hostage has revealed in a terrifying account of his ordeal.
Nessim Cohen* told Liberation he watched the gunman take the memory card from the camera, put it into a computer and manipulate the images during the kosher supermarket siege.
The camera and working memory card from the popular selfie stick were later confiscated by police, French media reported.
It is not clear whether images were shot and if these images were broadcast on the internet.
Police discovered the GoPro camera, 10 molotov cocktails, a jihadist flag, two walkies-talkies, a police-style revolving light, a Kalashnikov rifle loader and the identity card of Said Kouachi in a black Citroen DS3 car abandoned by the gunmen.
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Coulibaly, 32, appeared in a chilling video posted online last night, pledging allegiance to the Islamic State caliphate.
The seven-minute, 17-second clip, entitled Soldier of the Caliphate, is thought to have been filmed before the deadly siege at the kosher supermarket.
He is seen preparing for the massacre by doing push-ups in what reports describe as a housing estate courtyard.
Cohen and girlfriend Marie D said Coulibaly had two Kalashnikovs, two automatic pistols, a knife and dynamite.
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The pair tried to hide in the basement cold room, but were ordered upstairs by the hostage-taker.
“A store employee came down: she told us that if we did not go up the terrorist was going to kill all the people who stayed there.â€
Cohen said he watched a young hostage try to grab Coulibaly’s rifle from on top of a box and try to shoot the gunman, before there was a loud bang and he saw the young man lying dead on the ground.
Coulibaly told the others: “Look at what happens to those who try to defend themselves.â€
It is thought he had already killed the other three victims.
The terrorist was strangely calm after that, the hostages said, making sandwiches and telling the group to find boxes for the women to sit on.
Later, he became impatient, and was heard taking to TV station BFMTV and the police over the phone and demanding that French troops immediately leave all Islamic states.
As Coulibaly began installing explosives inside the market, a Special Forces Unit stormed the site. A screaming Coulibaly began shooting at the police, as officers helped hostages to safety.
A customer named Daniel also said Coulibaly seemed relaxed. Daniel, who managed to escape the scene just before the store’s metal shutters were closed by the gunman, told Le Nouvel Observateur: “He was very calm and kept smiling.â€
Like his accomplices, Said and Chérif Kouachi, Coulibaly was killed by police during the raid.
*Names changed on request.