Western security sources said they suspected an Islamist militant group was behind the carnage.
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Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has offered his condolences to France after scores of people were killed in a wave of gun attacks and explosions across central Paris.
At least 153 people were reported killed and the death toll was rising in shootings and explosions around Paris Friday, in the deadliest violence in France in decades.
A police union official, Gregory Goupil of the Alliance Police Nationale, whose region includes the area of the stadium, said there were two suicide attacks and a bombing that killed at least three people near two entrances and a McDonalds.
President Francois Hollande has declared a state of emergency. Three of them were wearing explosive belts, police said. He said both Al Qaida and ISIS have relied on the strategy of coordinated attacks in the past.
He told the BBC: “I heard gunshots”. In a tweet, he said, “Faced with terror, this is a nation that knows how to defend itself, how to mobilize its forces and once again, knows how to overcome the terrorists”.
Under attack… The restaurant where the shooting occurred.
UPDATE: French police have confirmed that at least 18 people have been killed in at least two shooting incidents in Paris.
An Agence France-Presse reporter outside the Bataclan said before the police stormed the venue, hundreds of officers carrying machine-guns were keeping guard and more than 20 police wagons with their lights flashing were at the scene.
West London Uber taxi driver Emrah Cetinkaya who is due to fly out to Paris from Heathrow tomorrow morning told GetWestLondon: “Me and my partner are spending only a day there and wanted to make the most of Paris”.
“Terrorist attacks of an unprecedented magnitude are in play in Paris”.
Between 40 and 60 people have been killed and 60 wounded in the attacks.
The president did not confirm who might be responsible for the attacks, saying that he did not want to speculate.
The match continued until the end but panic broke out in the crowd as rumors of the attack spread, and spectators were held in the stadium and assembled spontaneously on the pitch.
“I am shocked by events in Paris tonight”, the Prime Minister wrote on Twitter.
Emilioi Macchio, from Ravenna, Italy, was at the Carillon bar near the restaurant that was attacked having a beer when the gunfire erupted.
Early reports are claiming that two bombs were detonated in the capital including one near the Stade de France, soccer stadium where the French and German national teams were playing a “friendly”. He said he didn’t see any gunmen or victims, but hid behind a corner then ran away.
NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg said the Atlantic defence alliance would stand with France “strong and united” against terrorism, following the killing of dozens of people in Paris on Friday night.
“It sounded like fireworks”, he said.
The neighborhood has many restaurants that were packed with patrons.
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President Barack Obama made a statement from the White House Friday night to underscore the United State’s support for France and to condemn the people involved in the terrorist attacks.
