Two days after the worst attacks in France since World War Two, the names of many victims are starting to emerge, their smiling faces shining out from an array of social websites — a cameraman, a foreign exchange student, lawyers, an artist, a journalist, tourists, two sisters at a birthday party.

Because the killers struck on a Friday night, targeting a packed concert hall, bars and a soccer stadium, many of the dead were young, their lifes and loves openly posted on the Internet, which has now been used to mark their passing, reports Reuters.

Isobel Bowdery, 22, a South African graduate, has shared on Facebook what was going through her mind as she faced murderous gunmen with hundreds of concert goers at Bataclan concert hall in Paris on Friday, reports the Daily Mail.

‘Isobel posted the emotionally raw status on Facebook to describe her horrific ordeal which is accompanied by a photo of the t-shirt she wore to the concert, stained with blood.’

‘The former Cape Town University student thanks the many strangers that helped her during the night from the man who she credits for saving her life to a couple she heard exchanging loving last words.’

Here is the post Isobel wrote on Facebook:

‘You never think it will happen to you. It was just a Friday night at a rock show. The atmosphere was so happy and everyone was dancing and smiling.’

‘And then when the men came through the front entrance and began the shooting, we naively believed it was all part of the show. It wasn't just a terrorist attack, it was a massacre. Dozens of people were shot right in front of me. Pools of blood filled the floor. Cries of grown men who held their girlfriends’ dead bodies pierced the small music venue.’

‘Futures [were] demolished, families heartbroken. Shocked and alone, I pretended to be dead for over an hour, lying among people who could see their loved ones motionless.

‘Holding my breath, trying to not move, not cry — not giving those men the fear they longed to see. I was incredibly lucky to survive.’

But not everyone was lucky, Isobel wrote.

‘The people who had been there for the exact same reasons as I — to have a fun Friday night were innocent. This world is cruel. And acts like this are supposed to highlight the depravity of humans and the images of those men circling us like vultures will haunt me for the rest of my life. The way they meticulously aimed at shot people around the standing area I was in the centre of without any consideration for human life. It didn't feel real. I expected any moment for someone to say it was just a nightmare.

‘But being a survivor of this horror lets me able to shed light on the heroes. To the man who reassured me and put his life on line to try and cover my brain whilst I whimpered, to the couple whose last words of love kept me believing the good in the world, to the police who succeeded in rescuing hundreds of people, to the complete strangers who picked me up from the road and consoled me during the 45 minutes I truly believed the boy I loved was dead, to the injured man who I had mistaken for him and then on my recognition that he was not Amaury, held me and told me everything was going to be fine despite being all alone and scared himself, to the woman who opened her doors to the survivors, to the friend who offered me shelter and went out to buy new clothes so I wouldn’t have to wear this blood stained top, to all of you who have sent caring messages of support — you make me believe this world has the potential to be better. To never let this happen again.’

‘But, most of this is to the 80 people who were murdered inside that venue, who weren't as lucky, who didn’t get to wake up today and to all the pain that their friends and families are going through. I am so sorry. There's nothing that will fix the pain. I feel privileged to be there for their last breaths. And truly believing that I would join them, I promise that their last thoughts were not on the animals who caused all this. It was thinking of the people they loved.’

‘As I lay down in the blood of strangers and waiting for my bullet to end my mere 22 years, I envisioned every face that I have ever loved and whispered I love you; over and over again; reflecting on the highlights of my life. Wishing that those I love knew just how much, wishing that they knew that no matter what happened to me, to keep believing in the good in people. To not let those men win. Last night, the lives of many were forever changed and it is up to us to be better people. To live lives that the innocent victims of this tragedy dreamt about but sadly will now never be able to fulfil.’

Paris is one of the most visited cities in the world and the dead came from Congo to California and from Mexico to Morocco.