Paris terror
Over 150 dead in six attacks:
France declared a state of emergency and secured its borders
Fridaynight after attackers unleashed a coordinated wave of explosions,
gunfire and hostage-taking in Paris that left more than 140 people dead
and generated scenes of horror and carnage.
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.
Friday was the second time this year that the City of Light has been
a scene of mass murder; in January, Islamist gunmen attacked the
satirical newspaper Charlie Hebdo and a kosher supermarket, leaving a
total of 17 dead.
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.”
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.
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.
The scene of the worst carnage was the 19th-century Bataclan concert
hall, one of the city’s most famous music venues, where hundreds of
people had gathered for a show by an American band, Eagles of Death
Metal.
As attacks reverberated elsewhere in the city, gunmen stormed the
building. Witnesses said three or four men, clad in black, used assault
rifles to mow down audience members, shooting some as they dove to the
floor seeking safety.
“There are survivors inside,” a man named Benjamin Cazenoves posted
on his Facebook account, saying he was in the hall before police closed
in. “They are cutting down everyone. One by one.”
Police surrounded the building and, amid the boom of explosions and
rattle of gunfire, moved in. As they did so, the attackers blew
themselves up with explosive belts, police said. Inside, officers found
evidence of a massacre, with at least 118 people dead, the city’s deputy
mayor, Patrick Klugman, told CNN.
Hollande went on national television Friday night to announce a state
of emergency, including restrictions at French borders and the
deployment of the army. The president’s office said 1,500 French troops
would hit the streets of Paris to back up police.
The border controls came amid growing signs across Europe that the
continent’s tradition of free movement is at grave risk. Despite rules
for passport-free travel, Sweden instituted border checks this week to
better control an unprecedented flow of migrants from the Middle East,
southern Asia and Africa. Slovenia rolled out razor wire on its border
with Croatia.
While the new French border controls were expected to be strict,
international airlines and trains appeared to still be operating.
Pix courtesy: AFP
- CNN |
