in a seemingly coordinated wave of gun and suicide bomb attacks,
prompting the French president, François Hollande, to declare a state of
emergency and shut the country’s borders.
The massacre started with gun attacks at a rock
concert and two restaurants, along with a series of blasts near the
Stade de France, where the national side were playing Germany in an
international football match.
nce following what he called
‘unprecedented terror attacks’, and shut all of its borders with
immediate effect.
Police officials told AP that two of the incidents near the stadium
involved suicide attacks, with three people reported to be killed.
One concertgoer, Julien Pearce, a journalist from Europe
1 radio, said he saw two or three men armed with Kalashnikov-type
rifles burst in midway through the concert and begin “shooting blindly
at the crowd” for a number of minutes.
“Everyone was running in all directions towards the stage,” he said.
“It was a stampede and even I was trampled on. I saw a lot of people hit
by bullets. The gunmen had loads of time to reload at least three
times. They weren’t masked; they knew what they were doing; they were
very young.”
The authorities warned people to remain indoors where possible and closed the Métro system.
The state of emergency would be in force across France,
Hollande said, meaning some place might be closed and people searched.
He said: “The second decision I have made is to close the borders. We
must ensure that no one enters to commit any crimes and that those who
have committed the crimes that we have unfortunately seen can also be
arrested if they should leave the territory.”