pe that the man might still be there. At the time of their arrival, Carlos was entertaining several Venezuelan students and was partially drunk. When the police knocked at the door of the apartment, Carlos was in the bathroom with one of the girls, showing her an automatic machine pistol, one of the many weapons that he had stashed there. The police attempted to question Carlos but he resisted and threatened to call his embassy to complain. The talk became heated and Carlos went back to the bathroom, retrieved his weapon and slid it down the back of his trousers. Re- entering the room, Carlos offered the policemen drinks and asked one of the women to play a song. The atmosphere in the tiny flat became more relaxed until one of the other police officers entered the room with Moukharbal. When asked if he could identify anyone in the room he raised his arm and pointed at Carlos. Carlos immediately drew his machine pistol and shot Moukharbal in the neck. Next he swung the gun towards Herranz and shot him, also in the neck. With deadly precision, Carlos shot the two remaining detectives before making his escape into the street via an adjoining apartment. Later, a badly wounded Herranz, was helped into a taxi by two of the students and taken to hospital, he was the only survivor. Incredibly, the attack had been so quick and deadly that the bodies of Moukharbal and the two detectives lay stacked on top of one another. Ironically, prior to the shooting, the French authorities had no knowledge of Carlos or his activities but the eyewitness account, provided by Herranz, gave them enough information to initiate one of the biggest manhunts in history.Within days of the attack, while the authorities were busy rounding up anyone who had even the slightest connection to him, Carlos made a late night visit to the home of an old girlfriend and retrieved several documents including a Chilean passport that he used to make his escape to Beirut...
