Shootings and Blasts, Apparently in Sync
The Paris area reeled Friday night from a shooting rampage, explosions and mass hostage-taking.
Ambulances screamed down the boulevards, as the French capital was left to wonder: Why us? Once again?
‘Scene of Carnage’ Inside Sold-Out Paris Concert Hall
People attending a show by an American group described the moment when men burst into the Bataclan concert hall.
The French government imposed border controls, decreed new security powers and mobilized troops in a national emergency. President François Hollande of France ... called the terrorist attacks on Friday an “act of war,” saying that the Islamic State was responsible for the attacks and that the death toll now stands at 127.
Mr. Hollande declared three days of mourning.
Taken together, the assaults represented the deadliest day of attacks in France since World War II and one of the worst terrorist strikes on Western soil since Sept. 11, 2001. At half a dozen sites across Paris — a soccer stadium, restaurants, a concert hall — the attackers carried out suicide bombings, hurled grenades and shot hostages dead in a frenzy of violence that paralyzed the city. Late into the night and early Saturday morning, heavily armed security forces flooded the streets while panicked residents and tourists sought safety indoors.
The latest violence will only heighten the tension on a continent that is already on edge from the accumulated strain of a historic migration crisis, growing Islamist extremism and increasingly polarized politics.
World leaders rushed to condemn the attacks, and French President François Hollande vowed revenge, though there was no immediate claim of responsibility. “We are going to lead a war which will be pitiless,” Hollande said outside the Bataclan concert hall, scene of the most bloodshed.
“Because when terrorists are capable of committing such atrocities, they must be certain that they are facing a determined France, a united France, a France that is together and does not let itself be moved, even if today we express infinite sorrow.”
President Barack Obama condemned the series of deadly attacks across Paris Friday as an 'attack on all of humanity' and pledged to work with France to bring those responsible to justice.
Chilling footage shows concert-goers dragging blood-soaked friends from scene and woman hanging from window. Up to 100 were massacred in the Bataclan concert hall after suicide bombers took hostage then blew themselves up. Eyewitnesses said the terrorists shouted 'Allah Akbar' and 'this is for Syria' as they burst in and opened fire,
The violence was quickly celebrated online by backers of the Islamic State and other extremist groups. The scale and sophistication of the attacks will be likely to prompt questions about how the planning for such an operation evaded the scrutiny of French intelligence services.
Until the early hours of Saturday morning, some of the gunmen were thought to remain at large. But the Paris prosecutor’s office announced Saturday that all eight of the attackers had been killed — seven of them by detonating explosives.
Still, authorities warned that accomplices could remain at large. "To plan six attacks you need a lot of people involved, not only those who were at the spot," said a senior European counter-terrorism official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity.
The killers traced an arc across the city, targeting lightly secured facilities where tourists and residents had been enjoying the sort of experiences and events that define Friday night in Paris on a cool November evening. Soccer games, concerts and evening meals were all violently disrupted by the sounds of explosions and gunfire.