Firemen were in stadium for reward, escaped attack

Deutsche Lufthansa AG and Airbus Group SE chief executive officers and about 1,200 French firefighters were in a Paris sports stadium rocked by explosions Friday night, in what had been planned as a reward for service after the Germanwings tragedy earlier this year.

The firefighters had been honoured earlier in the day at the German embassy in Paris for their work in the aftermath of the crash last March, in which 150 people died after co-pilot Andreas Lubitz deliberately steered the plane into the French Alps. The group then went to the soccer game between France and Germany, in what until the blasts was a convivial night out, said Rainer Ohler, a spokesman for Airbus who was with the group at the embassy and then during the game.

"It was a shock for us all," Ohler said. The firefighters and executives were unhurt and managed to exit the Stade de France, the country's biggest stadium, fairly quickly. "People were crying on the roads." Lufthansa CEO Carsten Spohr, Airbus CEO Tom Enders and Air France-KLM CEO Alexandre De Juniac were in the stadium.