AOW #2: Terrorist Attacks in Paris Leave at Least 132 Dead, Many Injured
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PARIS - France declared a state of emergency and secured its borders Friday night after attackers
unleashed a coordinated wave of explosions, gunfire and hostage-taking in Paris that left more than 132
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
on the Islamic State, which has claimed
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 - one, shot
and killed by police, and six of them by detonating explosives. Yet on Sunday, French police said the
eighth suspect was urgently being sought.
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
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AOW #2: Terrorist Attacks in Paris Leave at Least 132 Dead, Many Injured
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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 100 people dead, the city's deputy mayor, Patrick Klugman, told
CNN.
Government personnel guided survivors of the attack, wrapped in gold-colored heat blankets, down the
street to waiting buses. Several had blood spattered on their clothing. Some cried. Most declined to talk
to reporters.
One middle-aged woman with brown curly hair and wearing a white sweater called out from the group
of survivors to a man on the other side of a police barrier. He rushed over, embraced her, and the pair
simply stood, locked in each others' arms, for several minutes.
At other sites across the city, attacks left dozens more dead. There were conflicting reports of the exact
numbers.
Outside a popular cafe, witnesses reported seeing piles of bodies in the street, the cafe windows having
been riddled with gunfire.
At the soccer match, terrified fans gathered on the field, having been barred by authorities from leaving
after suicide bombers detonated explosives outside the stadium just north of Paris. The blasts near the
stadium prompted authorities to evacuate Hollande, who was among thousands watching a friendly
match between France and Germany.
Across Paris, normal city life came to a halt. Subway lines were shut down, and authorities advised
residents to stay indoors. People who had been on the street in areas near the attacks fled in a panic.
"I was outside smoking a cigarette when I saw some people coming towards us saying an attack was
going on at the Bataclan," said Charlotte Baudoin, a 29-year-old event manager. "So everybody ran back
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AOW #2: Terrorist Attacks in Paris Leave at Least 132 Dead, Many Injured
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inside the restaurant and they locked the doors. We stayed inside for 50 minutes with the lights off.
Then they told us to leave, but we did not feel safe on the streets."
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.
In Washington, a somber President Barack Obama appeared in the White House briefing room to offer
condolences and U.S. help "to bring these terrorists to justice."
He said the wave of violence was not just an assault on France but "an attack on all of humanity and the
universal values we share."
Obama, who was scheduled to leave Saturday for the Group of 20 summit in Turkey, said he spoke with
Hollande prior to the attacks.
"All of Paris needs our prayers tonight," House Speaker Paul D. Ryan, R-Wisconsin, tweeted.
Within minutes of the first reports on the violence, Islamic State supporters created hashtags hailing
"Paris in flames" and declaring that "ISIS is attacking Paris," the Vocativ website reported. (ISIS is
another name for the Islamic State.)
Mary Lou Dorio, the mother of Julian Dorio, the drummer for Eagles of Death Metal, said in an interview
that her son and other band members managed to escape the concert hall when the attack there began.
However, the fate of several crew members remains unknown, she said.
"It was awful," she said. She added that her son was at a local police station, where he was able to call
his wife.
"It was a bloodbath," Julien Pearce, a radio reporter in France, said in an interview with CNN. He said he
was at the concert and saw three or four young men dressed in black open fire on the crowd with
assault rifles, firing at random as people screamed.
"They didn't shout anything. They didn't say anything," he said of the assailants. "They were just
shooting people."
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AOW #2: Terrorist Attacks in Paris Leave at Least 132 Dead, Many Injured
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Late on Sunday, France's Defense Ministry said French warplanes had launched a ferocious retaliatory
assault on targets in Raqqa, Syria, the Islamic State's de facto capital, after coordinating with U.S.
defense officials. The ministry said 10 aircraft dropped 20 bombs on facilities used by the militant group.
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