Gunmen kill more than 120 in wave of attacks across Paris
France was in a nationwide state of emergency
Saturday after a night of horror in Paris when
gunmen sprayed restaurants with bullets,
massacred scores of concert-goers and launched
suicide attacks near the national stadium, killing
at least 120 people.
At least eight militants, all wearing
suicide vests, brought unprecedented
violence to the streets of the French
capital, in the bloodiest attacks in
Europe since the Madrid train bombings
in 2004.
Armed with AK47s and shouting “Allahu
akbar”, four of the group marched into a
rock concert at the Bataclan venue in
eastern Paris, murdering at least 82
people and taking dozens hostage.
“They didn’t stop firing. There was blood
everywhere, corpses everywhere.
Everyone was trying to flee,” said Pierre
Janaszak, a radio presenter who was at
the concert by US rock band Eagles of
Death Metal.
Hinting at their motives, the gunmen
were overheard raging at French
President Francois Hollande and his
military interventions in the Syrian civil
war against the Islamic State group.
“I clearly heard them say ‘It’s the fault of
Hollande, it’s the fault of your president,
he should not have intervened in Syria’,”
he added.
Suspicion immediately fell on Islamic
State jihadists, or Al-Qaeda and its
affiliates, as the likely perpetrators of
the coordinated assault which left at
least 120 people dead and 200 injured
across six locations.
Investigators said at least eight attackers
were dead by the end of Friday night’s
violence.
More than 500 French fighters are
thought to be with Islamic State in Syria
and Iraq, according to official figures,
while 250 have returned and some 750
expressed a desire to go.
In January, 17 people were killed in
Paris in attacks that targeted satirical
magazine Charlie Hebdo and a Jewish
supermarket. Another disaster was
narrowly averted in August when a
gunman was overpowered on a packed
high-speed train in northern France.
No arrests had been made by early
Saturday morning and it was unclear if
any gunmen were still on the loose.
Police were screening hours of video-
surveillance at the multiple locations.
As a precaution, all sports events were
cancelled on Saturday in Paris, while
access to public facilities such as
museums and swimming pools was
restricted.
– State of emergency decreed –
“Terrorist attacks of an unprecedented
level are under way across the Paris
region,” Hollande said in an emotional
televised message on Friday night in
which he declared a nation-wide state of
emergency.
“It’s a horror,” he added.
The president himself was caught up in
the carnage and had to be hastily
evacuated from the national Stade de
France stadium when suicide bombers
struck outside during a friendly football
international between France and
Germany.
At first, very few of the crowd appeared
to be aware of the significance of what
was happening despite the appearance
of helicopters low in the sky. The match
continued as other attacks began around
the capital.
The worst of the bloodshed occurred at
the Bataclan music venue in the trendy
11th arrondissement where more than
1,000 rock fans were at a sell-out show
for the Eagles of Death Metal band.
Four gunmen wearing suicide vests and
armed with automatic weapons stormed
the venue and began spraying the crowd
with bullets.
As screams rang out and survivors ran
over the injured or dead to make their
ways to the exits or places to hide, the
militants took hostages and then began
executing them.
“We heard people screaming — the
hostages particularly — and the threats
from the kidnappers,” added another
survivor, 34-year-old Charles.
Along with around 20 others, he fled to a
toilet where he pushed through the
ceiling and hid in the crawl space.
Three of the militants blew up their
explosive vests as elite anti-terror police
raided the venues around 1230 am (2330
GMT), while a fourth was shot dead.
Another attacker blew himself up in
nearby Boulevard Voltaire, as the streets
were filled with the sound of police
sirens and convoys of ambulances
shipping hundreds of injured to hospital.
Several restaurants near the concert hall
were also targeted, including a popular
Cambodian eatery in the trendy Canal
St. Martin area, whose bars and
restaurants heave with the young and
affluent on a typical Friday night.
– Global condemnation –
An extra 1,500 soldiers were mobilised
to reinforce police in Paris, Hollande’s
office said, with the city still recovering
from the psychological wounds inflicted
by the Charlie Hebdo attack.
French media reacted with horror but
determination to the scenes of
devastation.
“War in central Paris,” splashed centre-
right daily Le Figaro, with Le Parisien
taking up a similar theme. “This time it’s
war.”
Other reactions were a mix of fear and
defiance.
Concert-goer Charles, who spoke to AFP
at the Bataclan, said he would refuse to
be cowed by the terror he had
experienced.
“Life goes on. We won’t give in to fear.
Fuck them!” he said. “I’m going to a
concert on Tuesday. Keep rocking!”
US President Barack Obama led a chorus
of global condemnation, saying it was
“an attack on all of humanity”, and New
York lit the World Trade Centre in the
red, white and blue of the French flag.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel and
European Commission chief Jean-Claude
Juncker said they were “deeply shocked”
by the attacks.
Security had begun to be stepped up
ahead of key UN climate talks to be held
just outside the French capital from
November 30, with border checks
restored from Friday.
France has joined US-led air strikes on IS
targets in Iraq for over a year and in
September began bombing the jihadists
in Syria.
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