French TV channel criticised for showing video of Paris attacks suicide bomber blowing himself up

The footage, from a security camera inside the cafe, was broadcast during a special edition of the programme Zone Interdite

The Comptoir Voltaire, in the 11th arrondissement, one of the sites of the 13 November attacks (GETTY)

The French television channel M6 has been criticised for broadcasting video footage from last November's terrorist attacks in Paris showing a suicide bomber blowing himself up in a busy cafe.

Thirty-one-year-old Ibrahim Abdeslam killed himself in the Comptoir Voltaire cafe on 13 November, at the same as other attackers began the mass shooting in the nearby Bataclan theatre. Abdeslam's bomb injured 20 people, one seriously.

The footage, from a security camera inside the cafe, was broadcast during a special edition of the programme Zone Interdite on Sunday evening covering the attacks. It provoked shock among the two-million-strong audience, with some viewers tweeting that they thought the show went too far.

In the clip, Abdeslam is seen in a series of camera stills entering the enclosed terrace of the cafe, the walking into the middle of the small area, with around ten customers visible sitting at tables. He appears to raise his hand to his forehead, then the footage briefly shows the explosion. Miraculously, none of the cafe's customers died.

Ibrahim's brother Salah has been accused of being involved in the attacks, and went on the run after supposedly failing to blow himself up. He was arrested during a police raid in the Molenbeek area of Brussels on 18 March and on 21 April, he was charged with attempted murder over a shootout during a police raid prior to his arrest.