Paris Under Siege: 128 Killed in ISIS Attacks

PARIS: In the deadliest violence to strike France since World War II, a wave of coordinated attacks left more than 128 dead in scenes of carnage in Paris Friday. The self-styled Islamic State militant group has claimed responsibility for the attacks.
The assailants struck at least six very different venues, ranging from the national sports stadium to a pizzeria.
French President Francois Hollande on Saturday blamed the self-styled Islamic State (IS) group for the attacks in Paris that left at least 128 dead, calling them an “act of war”.
The multiple attacks across the city late Friday were “an act of war…committed by a terrorist army, the Islamic State, against France, against…what we are, a free country,” Hollande said.
Hollande said he would address parliament on Monday in an extraordinary meeting and the country would observe three days of official mourning for the victims of Friday’s attacks
“Terrorist attacks of an unprecedented level are underway across the Paris region,” Hollande said in an emotional televised message. “It’s a horror.”
President Francois declared a state of emergency across the entire country and cancelled his trip to the G20 summit due to take place this weekend in Turkey, in wake of what he called an unprecedented terrorist attack.
Investigators said at least eight attackers were dead by the end of the violence — the bloodiest in Europe since the Madrid train bombings in 2004 — with seven of them having blown themselves up.
According to a statement, issued from the presidency, 1,500 extra soldiers deployed to Paris after attacks.
The Paris metro railway was closed and schools, universities and municipal buildings were ordered to stay shut on Saturday. However some rail and air services are expected to run.
Paris closes city facilities, Disneyland
Schools, markets, museums and major tourist sites in the Paris area were closed on Saturday and sporting fixtures were cancelled following the terror attacks on the French capital, local authorities said.
“All city facilities are closed today,” Paris City Hall said on its website .
The list comprised schools, museums, libraries, sports halls, swimming pools, tennis courts, food markets and district town halls.
Only civil registration offices, to record marriages, will be open, it said, adding that security would be beefed up at town halls
Separately, the French secretary of state for sports issued instructions to sports federations to cancel matches this weekend.
Cancelled events include a European Champions Cup rugby match between Racing 92 and the Glasgow Warriors.
Irish rock band U2 also called off a Paris concert planned for Saturday.
The Eiffel Tower was closed according to a message on its website that did not say how long it would remain shuttered.
Disneyland Paris, which is located on the eastern rim of the Paris region, said it would not open on Saturday “in light of the recent tragic events in France and in support of our community and the victims of these horrendous attacks.”
“Our thoughts and prayers go out to all of those affected by these horrible events,” it said.
Concert venue attacked
A full house of 1,500 people were packed into the popular venue in eastern Paris for a concert by the US band Eagles of Death Metal.
About an hour after the band took to the stage, the whole concert hall was turned into “a bloodbath” according to a French radio reporter at the scene.
Four black-clad gunmen wielding AK-47s stormed into the hall and fired calmly and methodically at hundreds of screaming concert-goers, killing at least 100.
Fellow radio presenter Pierre Janaszak heard the first shots and thought it was part of the act.
“But we quickly understood. They were just firing into the crowd.”
Four assailants were killed after police stormed in — three by activating their suicide vests and a fourth shot dead — but not before they had mown down some 100 people.
All members of the California-based band that was to perform at the Paris venue are safe and have been accounted for, a US official briefed by the Justice Department said.
Stadium attacked
Three loud explosions were heard outside France’s national stadium during the first half of a friendly international football match between France and Germany.
At least five people died outside the glittering venue which staged the 1998 World Cup final with several others seriously hurt.
One of the explosions was near a McDonald’s restaurant on the fringes of the stadium.
At least one of the two explosions in rue Jules-Rimet was a suicide bomb attack.
French President Francois Hollande, who was watching the game, was immediately evacuated.
The match was eventually completed and the stadium emptied in a relatively calm atmosphere.
Japanese restaurant targeted
A little further east on Rue de Charonne 18 people were killed, with one witness saying a Japanese restaurant was the main target.
“There was blood everywhere,” the witness said.
Another man said he heard shots ring out, in sharp bursts, for two or three minutes.
“I saw several bloody bodies on the ground. I don’t know if they were dead,” he said.
Cambodian restaurant attacked
Pierre Montfort lives close to a Cambodian restaurant on Paris’ Rue Bichat, a little further north, was the scene of another attack.
“We heard the sound of guns, 30-second bursts. It was endless. We thought it was fireworks,” he said.
Florence said she arrived by scooter a minute or so after.
“It was surreal, everyone was on the ground. No one was moving inside the Petit Cambodge restaurant and everyone was on the ground in bar Carillon,” she said.
“It was very calm — people didn’t understand what was going on. A young girl was being carried in the arms of a young man. She seemed to be dead.”
Pizzeria targeted
A few hundred metres from the Bataclan, the terrace of the Casa Nostra pizzeria was targeted.
Five people were killed by attackers wielding automatic rifles, according to witness Mathieu, 35.
“There were at least five dead around me, others in the road, there was blood everywhere. I was very lucky.”
Explosion at Boulevard Voltaire
An eighth attacker blew himself up in Boulevard Voltaire near the concert venue, as the streets of the capital were filled with the sound of police sirens and convoys of ambulances shipping the injured to hospital.
‘Corpses everywhere’
The most bloody of the attacks was at the Bataclan, where police said around 100 people were killed.
“We heard so many gunshots and the terrorists were very calm, very determined,” Julien Pearce, a reporter for France’s Europe 1 radio, told CNN while the hostage crisis was still underway.
“They reloaded three or four times … and they didn’t shout anything. They didn’t say anything.” He said friends were still inside as he spoke.
“They are hiding in some kind of room in the dark and they text(ed) me, and they are very afraid, of course, and they are waiting for the police to intervene, but it’s been over two hours now and this is terrible.”
Hundreds of police had gathered outside and armed officers eventually stormed the venue at around 2335 GMT, accompanied by a series of explosions.
At the Stade de France, spectators flooded the pitch as news of the attacks spread before organisers started evacuations.

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