French victim of Barcelona attack is looking for Israeli who saved his children
Renaud, who was wounded in the attack, tells French TV how his eldest son was thrown from his arm when the terrorist's van hit him and was recovered by an Israeli; 'I would like to find my children's savior.'
A French man who was wounded in the terror attack at La Rambla Street in Barcelona last month is looking for the Israeli man who saved his children's life.
The man, identified only as Renaud, recounted the attack Sunday on TV show Seven to Eight on French channel TF1.
"An Israeli did not hesitate to jump and save my children, to recover them, while the terrorist was still in the car," he said, adding, "I would like to find my children's savior."
Renaud
Renaud said he was in Barcelona on vacation with his wife and two children. "I saw people get hit by the vehicle. I had my son in my arms, I just had time to do a quarter turn to try to absorb the shock," he went on to say.
"I was hit hard by the truck. It was very fast, impossible to react," he told Seven to Eight in tears.
"I no longer had my son in my arms, I fell to the left of the vehicle, which stopped a few meters after hitting us," he continued.
Renaud's eldest son was thrown from his arms at the shock of the hit and was recovered by an Israeli who was on the scene.
The French man is still in the hospital, suffering from many fractures in his limbs. His wife and children, meanwhile, have recovered from the attack.
Sixteen people were murdered and 120 others wounded when an Islamist militant drove a van into crowds at Barcelona's La Rambla Street on August 18.
Terror attack in Barcelona (צילום: רויטרס, דקלה בן שושן, מרדכי נדלר)
The Islamic State claimed responsibility for the deadly rampage along the city's most famous avenue, which was packed with tourists taking an afternoon stroll.
The driver, Younes Abouyaaqoub, 22, who was initially able to escape, was shot and killed by Spanish security forces several days later.
Authorities believe there were 12 members in Abouyaaqoub's terror cell. Five of them were killed in a later, connected attack in the coastal town of Cambrils on the same day, while two others were killed in an explosion a day before the attacks in another coastal town, Alcanar Platja, while trying to assemble a bomb for a much larger attack.
The remaining four were arrested in Alcanar and Ripoll. In their testimony, they said the mastermind behind the attacks was an imam in Ripoll, Abdelbaki Es Satty. He was killed in the explosion a day before the attacks.
