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The Paris Attacks Produced the Most-Played Vine of All Time

By Published On 11/17/2015 By Published On 11/17/2015
Vine

If you were among the countless people stunned by early reports of the horrifying terrorist attacks in Paris last Friday, you probably watched the widely shared Vine capturing an explosion heard during the France versus Germany game at the Stade de France. Along with breaking news reports, the haunting video has appeared in subsequent coverage of the attacks, and as of Tuesday afternoon has been looped -- or played -- more than 150 million times.

Now, Vine has confirmed that the post has become the most-looped Vine of all time, according to a report by BuzzFeed News.

At first glance, it may seem like the Vine was taken from someone who witnessed the attack at the stadium, but it was actually created by Terje Haavin, a 22-year-old from Tromsø, Norway, who recorded video of the game on his computer. Haavin typically records the games and posts highlights on social media, and it didn't take long before he made the connection between the mysterious explosion sound heard in the video and the first reports of the attacks, according to the report.

"I immediately realized that the loud bang I had heard earlier in the game was the sound of the explosion," he told BuzzFeed News. "I had actually memorized when it happened, so I looked it up in my recording, cut out the exact moment with the explosion, uploaded it to Vine and posted a link on my Twitter.”

Since then, it's been shared tens of thousands of times on other social media sites like Facebook and Twitter, appeared in broadcast news reports of the attacks, and remains as some of the most startling imagery capturing the confusion and chaos during the tragedy. 

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Tony Merevick is Cities News Editor at Thrillist and still gets chills from watching it. Send news tips to news@thrillist.com and follow him on Twitter @tonymerevick.

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