Father grieves son's death as the authorities announce identities of 129 victims of Paris attacks
Hugo Sarrade, a 23-year-old student from Montpellier in southern France, is among the 129 victims killed in the Paris attack over the weekend. His grieving father spoke of his loss as the authorities announced the identities of all the 129 victims.
Hugo came to Paris to spend time with his father over the weekend and, at the same time, attend a few concerts. One of which was by the American band Eagles of Death Metal at the Bataclan theatre, where suicide bombers detonated their explosive belts killing scores of people on Friday.
According to Hugo’s father, he was passionate about music, apart from comics, computer and beer. Stephane Sarrade, Hugo’s father, did not get a chance to meet his son on Friday when he arrived as he was still stuck with work then. His son dropped his bag at home, spent some time with his two-year-old brother and left for the concert.
"Hugo was a guy from his generation," the father told ABC’s AM program. "He was not exceptional, but he was exceptional, because he was my son."
Stephanie said his son went to the concert alone because he was a huge fan of music and wanted to enjoy the vibe of the concert all by being on his own.
The duo were to meet at the dinner table after Hugo was back from the concert, but after it got really late and there was no sign of his son, Stephane said he knew something was majorly wrong. He followed the news on the television and searched the information as the media poured in with updates of the shootings that was happening around the place where his son was supposed to be.
"It was very long, more than 20 hours," he said. "And then I phoned the morgue, and it was done."
Stephane, who is a scientist by profession, wishes to dedicate the rest of his life to the memory of his son.
"They wanted to kill this generation, they wanted to kill hope, and that's barbarism, and I don't want that to continue, and I would like to give hope to the next generation," he said.
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