“I heard the explosions, people screaming,” the man says. “I left a country torn by war, and now war has come to France.”
The man’s name is Assad and he lives near the Stade de France, where two explosions killed four people as deadly attacks ripped through Paris on Friday.
The 23-year-old Afghanistan native won’t tell me his last name because he fears for his safety, but as he stands near the metro station at La Chapelle, selling knock-off shoes from a small blanket on the ground, he explains in fluent French how he’s worried about what comes next.