Friday, November 13, 2015

Paris Attacks Kill More Than 100, Police Say; Border Controls Tightened



EUROPE


By ADAM NOSSITER and RICK GLADSTONE


NOV. 13, 2015 610





SLIDE SHOW|14 Photos
Deadly Attacks in Paris
Deadly Attacks in Paris

CreditYoan Valat/European Pressphoto Agency



PARIS — The Paris area reeled Friday night from a shooting rampage, explosions and mass hostage-taking that President François Hollande called an unprecedented terrorist attack on France. He announced sharply increased border controls and mobilized the military in a national emergency.

French television and news services quoted the police as saying around 100 people had been killed at a concert venue where hostages had been taken in a two-hour standoff with the police, and perhaps many more killed in apparently coordinated attacks outside the country’s main sports stadium and at least five other popular locations in the city. But estimates on the total number of dead varied widely in the confusion.

Witnesses on French television said the scene at the concert hall, which can seat as many as 1,500 people, was a massacre. Ambulances were seen racing back and forth in the area into the early hours of Saturday morning.


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Television reports said at least two assailants at the concert hall were killed as police assaulted the building.

NEWS CLIPS: EUROPE 00:49Scene of Deadly Attacks in Paris

Video

Scene of Deadly Attacks in Paris

Police in Paris confirmed on Friday that several people were killed in multiple acts of violence in and around the city. Publish DateNovember 13, 2015. Photo by Thibault Camus/Associated Press.

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The casualties eclipsed the deaths and mayhem that roiled Paris in the Charlie Hebdo massacre and related assaults around the French capital by Islamic militant extremists less than a year ago.

An explosion near the sports stadium, which French news services said may have been a suicide bombing, came as Germany and France were playing a soccer match, forcing a hasty evacuation of Mr. Hollande. As the scope of the assaults quickly became clear, he convened an emergency cabinet meeting and announced that France was placing severe restrictions on its border crossings.

“As I speak, terrorist attacks of an unprecedented scale are taking place in the Paris region,” he said in a nationally televised address. “There are several dozen dead, lots more wounded, it’s horrific.”
Mr. Hollande said that on his orders the government had “mobilized all the forces we can muster to neutralize the threats and secure all of the areas.”
President Obama in Washington came to the White House Briefing room to express solidarity and offer aid and condolences. “Once again, we’ve seen an outrageous attempt to terrorize innocent civilians,” he said. “This is an attack not just on Paris, it’s an attack not just on the people of France, but this is an attack on all of humanity and the universal values that we share.”


There was no immediate claim of responsibility, but Twitter erupted with celebratory messages by members and sympathizers of the Islamic State, the extremist group based in Syria and Iraq that is under assault by major powers including the United States, France and Russia.


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