The gunmen at the Bataclan theatre, where 89 people were killed during the Paris attacks, were "nervous", jittery" and "confused", according to a hostage negotiator.
The official, named only as Pascal, spoke to the gunmen five times on the phone at 11.27pm, 11.29pm, 11.48pm, 12.05am and 12.18am, but the negotiations led nowhere.
He also led the negotiations with Amedy Coulibaly, the gunman who killed a police officer and four people at Jewish supermarket the Hyper Cacher store in the Porte de Vincennes area of the French capital in January this year.
But he said the exchanges with Ismael Omar Mostefai and Samy Amimour at the Bataclan were like nothing he had ever known.
"They were very nervous, very jittery and confused, like under the influence of drugs," he told French magazine L'obs.
"They kept endlessly repeating the same phrases: 'We are the soldiers of the Caliphate. It is all Hollande's fault. You attacked our women and children in Syria. We are defending ourselves by attacking the women and children in France."
Pascal was in an unmarked van outside the theatre with a colleague and psychologist, trying to secure the release of the injured and women and children
After his second conversation with the attackers he said he realised they were not going to give themselves up and he informed Christophe Molmy, head of an elite French police unit which specialises in dealing with hostage situations, who was given the green light to storm the building.
Mr Molmy and Pascal described the bloody carnage witnessed by special forces as they entered the building, trying to distinguish between the dead and the living among the hundreds of bodies.
There was no crying or yelling and the injured dared not breathe, Mr Molmy recalled.
There was a scream from behind one locked door as a hostage warned them there were two terrorists with explosive belts who had threatened to behead people.
Mr Molmy spoke to a female hostage on the phone who he said was "terrorised" and was trying to give him a picture of what was going on inside.
Men, women and a 10-year-old boy were brought out at arms-length before armed officers continued the assault and advanced through the building amid deafening and blinding grenade blasts.
One of the attackers was killed when an officer shot at his explosives belt.
They heard a second explosion, but did not know if it was triggered by the impact of the first blast or if a second terrorist had decided to blow themselves up.
Mr Molmy said it took another hour to free the remaining hostages still alive, who had managed to hide in every nook and cranny they could find, including false ceilings and closets. Some 50 were found on the roof of the theatre.
Footage at the time showed a pregnant woman hanging from a window ledge of the venue, which was packed with music fans watching an Eagles Of Death Metal gig.
Amimour, 28, was from Drancy in northeast Paris and Mostefai, 29, from Courcouronnes, south of Paris, who lived in Chartres.
It is understood a third attacker, who has not yet been identified was also involved and blew themselves up.
Attacks also took place at the Stade de France and a series of bars, restaurants and cafes across the French capital as part of the coordinated massacre on 13 November which claimed the lives of 130 people.
