More Than 120 Killed In Paris Shooting and Bombing Attack

 

More than 120 people were killed in six attacks perpetrated by at least eight attackers in Paris on Friday, French officials said. The violence, which occurred 11 months after gunmen linked to Al-Qaeda carried out a deadly attack on the offices of French satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo, was one of the worst atrocities to strike the capital city in recent memory.

Three suicide bombers targeted a bar area near the Stade de France during a soccer match, attended by French President François Hollande, as a hostage crisis, which has since concluded, unfolded at a concert hall. There were also shootings and explosions near restaurants and bars in the city’s 10th and 11th arrondissements, near the center of the city. More than 200 people were reportedly injured in the attacks.

The perpetrators remain a mystery — their nationalities, their motives, even their exact number. However, eyewitnesses say that some attackers were heard shouting “Allahu Akbar,” Arabic for “God is great,” during the melee.

Several heavily armed attackers storm Paris concert hall where California band Eagles of Death Metal was playing
A witness told Al Jazeera that several men entered the Bataclan concert hall and started firing into the air. An American band called Eagles of Death Metal was playing to a packed crowd of close to 1,000 people.

Attackers held as many as 100 hostages for several hours at the concert hall until French security forces raided the venue and defeated the hostage takers, who were reportedly executing people inside.

Four attackers were killed at Bataclan, three of which detonated explosive vests they were wearing, officials said. Police shot and killed the fourth.