Young woman caught up in Paris attacks gives the most powerful account of what happened

When 22-year-old Isobel Bowdery got dressed on Friday evening, ready for a night out at an ​Eagles of Death Metal ​concert with her boyfriend, she wasn't aware of the events that would ensue. 

She wasn't aware that within a matter of hours, she would be playing dead on the floor of Paris' Bataclan theatre, waiting for her own time to come.

She wasn't aware that the white top she'd put on for the night would emerge blood stained; a permanent depiction of the pain, suffering and devastation she and hundreds of other concert-goers would experience that night.

Isobel emerged alive from Friday's barbaric attacks. But 89 other people weren't so lucky. Thankfully, Isobel has been brave enough to come forward and tell her story on Facebook, teaching us all some hugely valuable lessons about our fellow humankind and how we should cherish the lives we've got.

The post, which has gone viral on Facebook since it was posted not even a day ago, has been liked over 1.2 million times and has been shared across the social network almost half a million times. She starts by describing the "happy" atmosphere in the concert hall, and how when the men burst through the doors of the venue and began opening fire, ​"we naively believed it was all part of the show​".

They soon realised it was not an entertaining spectacle, but a blood-thirsty mission to gun down as many innocent people as possible.

"​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 demolished, families heartbroken. In an instant.​"

But instead of focussing on the sickening reality of the night's events, despite the fact that "i​mages of those men circling us like vultures will haunt [her] for the rest of [her] life​", what's stayed with Isobel most is the actions of the "heroes" she came across that night.

​"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​."

And perhaps in the most important message of all from her post, Isobel gave some words of comfort to the families and loved ones of those lost on Friday. As she lay on the floor, covering herself with the dead bodies of those who had already succumbed to the senseless violence and waiting for her own time, she insists she didn't reflect on the sickening acts her fellow humans had committed, but that she took something entirely more powerful from it. She writes:

"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."