French witness relates ‘bloodbath’ at packed concert venue

If these reports are confirmed, then this would be in addition to the other 30-some deaths from attacks elsewhere in the city. “Seriously injured!” Benjamin Cazenoves wrote on Facebook.

– Hollande, Prime Minister Manuel Valls and Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve are holding a crisis meeting at the Interior Ministry to address the attacks in Paris and the explosions in Saint-Denis, according to BFMTV.

The attackers stormed the concert hall on Friday evening after first spraying cafes outside the venue with machine gunfire, police said.

Paris police prefect Michael Cadot says all of the attackers are believed to be dead.

The attack unfolded with and three suicide bombings outside the national stadium during a soccer match between the French and German national teams, Thibault-Lecuivre said. Vox quotes a France 24 broadcast as confirming three separate shootings in Paris’ 10th and 11th arrondissements. One of the shootings, at the Bataclan theater, resulted in at least 100 people killed during a concert, which later turned into a hostage situation.

He added that he had friends still inside the venue who were terrified.

Witness accounts from people inside the Bataclan concert hall in Paris have painted a gruesome picture of what occurred as gunmen opened fire on the crowd, murdering 100 people. Immediate suspicion for the events in Paris falls to so-called returnees – people who have traveled to Syria and Iraq and have returned, the officials said. Outside the concert hall, a swarm of police vans blocked the view of the building as hundreds of cameras of the world’s press gathered at the site.

The hostage-taking was one in a series of six attacks across the French capital in what Mr Hollande has described as “unprecedented terrorist attacks”. He was like 20 years old, 25 maximum.

“Everyone scrabbled to the ground. I don’t know how long we stayed like that, it seemed like an eternity”. “It was hell. I took my mum, and we hid”, the man, who identified himself as Louis, told France Info radio.

The country has seen several smaller-scale attacks or attempts since, including an incident on a high-speed train in August in which American travelers thwarted an attempted attack by a heavily armed man. I thought I’m finished, I’m finished. “The whole band heard the gunshots before they saw anything and stopped playing, hit the deck and kind of went backstage and exited as fast as they could”.

“I worked in hospitals, I studied medicine, and I’ve never seen anything like it. Me and my son ran back to get a few help, and literally ran into a number of bodies”. President Francois Hollande condemned it as terrorism and pledged that France would stand firm against its foes.

– Paris police tell CNN there were three attacks.

“It was disgusting, there were so many corpses, I just can’t talk about it”, a bearded man in a death metal T-shirt told the paper as he ran down the street from the Bataclan in shock. “This is harder. I am shaken”. The assistant to the president for Homeland Security has briefed President Barack Obama on the situation.