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More than 120 killed, 200 injured in string of terror attacks in Paris

by IBNS 14 Nov 2015, 10:29 am

Paris, Nov 14 (IBNS) In the worst ever string of terrorist violence in France more than 120 people were killed and over 200 injured in Paris as gunmen and bombers struck in a synchronised pattern in six locations across the city on Friday, reports said.

Among the sites the deadly attacks were carried out were  restaurants, a concert hall and the national  sports stadium. The overall toll is expected to rise.

President Francois Hollande who called it an unprecedented terrorist attack, declared a nationwide state of emergency - the first in decades - and announced the closure of France's borders .

The attacks came after France waged air strikes against Islamic State fighters in Syria and Iraq.

Reports said gunmen shot dead nearly 100 people attending a rock concert at the Bataclan music hall. Anti-terrorist commandos went for an operation, killed gunmen and rescued dozens of survivors.

Some 40 other people were killed in separate attacks, including a suicide bombing outside the national stadium where President Hollande and the  German Foreign Minister were watching a friendly soccer international.

Media reports quoted Paris Public Prosecutor Francois Molins  as saying that five assailants had been "neutralised".

The worst scene of the carnage was the Bataclan concert hall, a popular venue in eastern Paris where a full house of 1,500 people were packed  for a concert by the US band Eagles of Death Metal.

About an hour after the band took to the stage, the whole concert hall was turned into "a bloodbath" according to a French radio reporter at the scene.

Black-clad gunmen wielding AK-47s stormed into the hall and fired calmly and methodically at hundreds of screaming concert-goers.

Four assailants were killed after police stormed in -- three by activating their suicide vests and a fourth shot dead -- but not before they had mown down some 100 people.

At the Stade de France, the national stadium, three loud explosions were heard during the first half of a friendly international football match between France and Germany. At least five people died outside the venue which staged the 1998 World Cup final with several others seriously hurt.

French President Francois Hollande, who was watching the game, was immediately evacuated.

One of the explosions was near a McDonald's restaurant on the fringes of the stadium.

At least one of the two explosions in rue Jules-Rimet was a suicide bomb attack.

The match was eventually completed and the stadium emptied.

A little further east on Rue de Charonne 18 people were killed, with one witness saying a Japanese restaurant was the main target.

 Rue Bichat, a little further north, was the scene of another attack as terrorists killed several people sitting inside Petit Cambodge restaurant and a bar.

A few hundred metres  from the Bataclan, the terrace of the Casa Nostra pizzeria was also targeted as five people were killed by attackers wielding automatic rifles, eye witnesses said.

Reports said attackers exploded his suicide vest on the Boulevard Voltaire, near the Bataclan. It is not yet known if there were any injuries from the explosion.