At least 128
people killed in Paris terror attacks
PARIS: At least 128 people were killed in a series of terror
attacks in Paris on Friday (Nov 13), according to a source at the
prosecutor's office.
Police said around 100 people were killed at the Bataclan music
venue in eastern Paris alone, with reports saying armed attackers
shot dead people attending a rock concert one by one before police
stormed the building.
Reports said four men who attacked the Bataclan concert hall
were themselves killed when police stormed the building, including
three who activated explosive belts. In total, eight militants were
killed in the attacks, according to an investigation
source.
Three more died near the national stadium and a fourth was
killed in a street in eastern Paris.
180 people are injured, with 99 critically injured, a source
close to the investigation told Reuters.
Paris prosecutors said their investigation would allow them to
see if any "accomplices or co-authors are on the loose". An initial
investigation has been opened for "killings in relation to a
terrorist enterprise", said chief prosecutor Francois Molins,
adding there were at least seven attackers in total.
One witness said an attacker had earlier yelled "Allahu akbar"
("God is greatest") and fired into the crowd at the concert given
by US rock band Eagles of Death Metal.
It was one of a series of attacks at seven locations across
Paris in an unprecedented night of carnage in the French capital
that is still recovering from militant attacks in January.
The Bataclan lies just 200 metres from the former offices of the
Charlie Hebdo magazine which was one of the targets of those
attacks.
"There are lots of people here. I don't know what's happening, a
sobbing witness who gave her name only as Anna told French news
channel BFM TV outside the Bataclan hall. "It's horrible. There's a
body over there. It's horrible."
It quickly became clear that Friday's attacks would be much
bloodier.
In addition to the carnage at the concert hall, at least five
people were also killed in three explosions near the Stade de
France national stadium in the north of the capital where France
were playing Germany in an international football match, security
sources said.
One of the explosions was caused by a suicide bomber, witnesses
said.
President Francois Hollande was attending the match and had to
be hastily evacuated.
Another attack was reported at a Cambodian restaurant called
Petit Cambodge, not far from the Bataclan venue in northeast Paris,
where witnesses said gunmen armed with Kalashnikov assault rifles
had fired at diners through the plate-glass windows, causing
multiple casualties.
"Terrorist attacks of an unprecedented level are underway across
the Paris region," Hollande said in an emotional televised message.
"It's a horror," he said.
Hollande declared a state of emergency across the entire country
and cancelled his trip to the G20 summit due to take place in
Turkey at the weekend.
CONCERT HALL HORROR
The focus of the attacks was the Bataclan. Armed police
eventually stormed the venue at around 2335 GMT, accompanied by a
series of explosions.
Police said around 100 were dead.
"I saw 20 to 25 bodies lying on the floor and people were very
badly injured, gunshot wounds," Julien Pierce, a witness at the
Bataclan, told Europe 1 radio. "Some of them were dead. Some of
them were very badly wounded, but it was a bloodbath."
Hollande declared a state of emergency across the entire country
and said the borders had been closed. The military had been
mobilised to reinforce police and ensure no further attacks took
place, he said.
"We must ensure that no one comes in to commit any act
whatsoever, and at the same time make sure that those who have
committed these crimes should be arrested if they try to leave the
country, he added.
Counter-terrorism prosecutors said they had opened a preliminary
investigation.
'THEY OPENED FIRE'
At the Stade de France, spectators flooded the pitch as news of
the attacks spread before organisers started an evacuation.
The mayor of Paris, Anne Hidalgo, called for residents to stay
at home.
"We heard gunfire, 30 seconds of fire, it was interminable, we
thought it was fireworks," said Pierre Montfort, who lives near rue
Bichat, where the Cambodian restaurant is located.
"Everyone was on the floor, no one moved," said another
eyewitness who had been at the Petit Cambodge restaurant. "A girl
was carried by a young man in his arms. She appeared to be
dead."
The toll "will be much heavier" than the initial confirmed
deaths, a security source said. Camille, 25, said: "My sister is in
the Bataclan. I phoned her. She said they opened fire. And then she
hung up."
"I was on my way to my sister's when I heard shots being fired.
Then I saw three people dead on the ground, I know they were dead
because they were being wrapped up in plastic bags," student Fabien
Baron told Reuters.
An AFP reporter outside the Bataclan said before the police
stormed the venue, hundreds of officers carrying machine-guns were
keeping guard and more than 20 police wagons with their lights
flashing were at the scene.
President Francois Hollande and Interior Minister Bernard
Cazeneuve announced that a crisis cell had been set up.
"The president of the Republic, the prime minister, the interior
minister are in a inter-ministerial crisis cell," the government
said in a statement.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel and European Union chief
Jean-Claude Juncker said they were "deeply shocked" by the
attacks.
The Vatican has also condemned the killings in Paris as "mad
terrorist violence" and called for a decisive response to counter
the spread of "homicidal hatred".
"We condemn (it) in the most radical way together with the pope
and all those who love peace," Vatican spokesman Father Federico
Lombardi said in a statement.
Top Sunni cleric Ahmed al-Tayyeb has also condemned the attacks,
saying at a conference that they "denounced this hateful incident",
and added that "the time had come for the world to unite to
confront this monster".
France has been on high alert since the militant attacks in
January against the Charlie Hebdo satirical magazine and a Jewish
supermarket that left 17 dead.
Several other attacks have been foiled through the year.
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 there.
The government announced last week that it was restoring border
checks as a security measure for UN climate talks that start in
Paris at the end of this month.
- AFP/Reuters/ec
