– Paris in mourning –
Paris residents struggled to come to terms with the latest atrocities, 10 months after jihadists hit satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo and a Jewish supermarket.
Museums and parks were closed and Sunday markets empty, although thousands still flocked to lay flowers and light candles at the sites of the violence.
But in a sign of just how shaken people were, the sound of fire-crackers at Place de la Republique, where mourners were standing in quiet solidarity, sent scores fleeing in panic before they realised it was a false alarm.
“We need to get out, you shouldn’t stay at home,” 38-year-old Herve told AFP. “You need to go out and look, get a feel for yourself of what happened.”
The Islamic State group said they carried out the attacks in revenge for French air strikes in Syria and threatened further violence in France “as long as it continues its Crusader campaign”.
World leaders united Sunday to denounce terrorism at a heavily-guarded G20 summit in Turkey and observed a minute’s silence in respect of those who were killed.
“We stand in solidarity with France in hunting down the perpetrators of this crime and bringing them to justice,” US President Barack Obama said after talks with his host, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.
Russia’s Vladimir Putin said overcoming global terror was possible only “if all the international community unites its efforts”.
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