Police said at least 150 people were killed at multiple locations in the French capital, which is still reeling from jihadist attacks in January/AFP
Black-clad gunmen wielding AK-47s stormed into the Bataclan concert hall in eastern Paris and fired calmly and methodically at hundreds of screaming concert-goers.
Police said at least 128 people were killed at multiple locations in the French capital, which is still reeling from jihadist attacks in January.
Witnesses said the attackers shouted “Allahu Akbar” (“God is greatest”) and blamed France’s military intervention in Syria as they sprayed bullets into the crowd watching US rock band Eagles of Death Metal.
Four attackers were killed when police stormed the Bataclan, which lies just 200 metres (yards) from the former offices of Charlie Hebdo magazine that was targeted in January.
Three of the attackers blew up suicide vests as police launched their attack, several sources said. The fourth was hit by police fire and blew up as he fell.
“There was blood everywhere, corpses everywhere. We heard screaming. Everyone was trying to flee,” said Pierre Janaszak, a radio presenter who attended the concert and hid with several others at the venue.
“They had 20 hostages, and we could hear them talking with them,” said Janaszak.
In the north of the city, at least five people were killed in three explosions near the Stade de France national stadium where France were playing Germany in an international football match, security sources said.
One of the explosions was caused by a suicide bomber, police and witnesses said.
President Francois Hollande was attending the match and had to be hastily evacuated.
A Cambodian restaurant near the concert hall was also attacked, with further deaths reported.
“Terrorist attacks of an unprecedented level are underway across the Paris region,” Hollande said in an emotional televised message.
“It’s a horror.”
Hollande 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.
Prosecutors said at least five attackers had been “neutralised” in total.
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