Police have so far made seven arrests near Bruxelles, per French reports.
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The attacks sent shockwaves around the world, with London’s Tower Bridge, Berlin’s Brandenburg Gate and the World Trade Center in NY among the many landmarks lit up in the red, white and blue of the French national flag in a show of solidarity.
A man who is believed to have procured one of the cars involved in the attacks was detained at the Belgian and French border.
Speaking to the Associated Press, four French officials said he was one of three people travelling in a auto which was stopped at the French-Belgian border, around 120 miles from Paris, early on Saturday morning, hours after he had been identified as the renter of the vehicle.
However, many questions remain – mainly who the other attackers were, and whether there are others still at large.
French authorities are particularly concerned about the threat from hundreds of French Islamic radicals who have travelled to Syria and returned home with skills to stage violence.
Omar Ismail Mostefai was known to police as nothing more than a petty criminal before he became the first gunman identified from Friday’s attacks in Paris, which left at least 129 dead. He was identified from fingerprints found on a finger amid the bloody carnage from a Paris concert hall, the Paris prosecutor said. A judicial official and lawmaker Jean-Pierre Gorges confirmed his identity. The official, who could not be named because the investigation is ongoing, said the weapons have not yet been analyzed.
The same man entered Serbia from Macedonia on October 7 and requested asylum in Serbia, according to Serbian police.
Soon after, a second person blew himself up outside the stadium, and a third suicide bomber detonated explosives at a nearby McDonald’s.
At least one of the raids was connected to the Paris attacks, according to a Western intelligence source who is in contact with French and Belgian intelligence services.
A few 40 more people were killed in five other attacks in the Paris region, including an apparent double suicide bombing outside the national stadium where French president Hollande and German foreign minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier were watching a friendly soccer global. The official spoke Sunday on condition of anonymity because she was not publicly authorised to speak.
Primate of All Ireland Archbishop Eamon Martin said: “These horrific events challenge us to pray and work even more earnestly for an end to the evil of terrorism everywhere”.
France has joined US-led air strikes on IS targets in Iraq for over a year and in September began bombing the jihadists in Syria. Well-wishers heaped flowers and notes on a monument to the dead in the neighbourhood where attackers sprayed gunfire at cafe diners and concert-goers.
He is one of three brothers believed to be involved in the killings; one was arrested in Belgium and another died in the attack, the first official said.
The metal shutters, came down, the lights were switched off. We were told to get down on the floor.
French police secure the perimeter after panic broke out among mourners who payed their respect at the attack sites at restaurant Le Petit Cambodge (Little Cambodia) and the Carillon Hotel in Paris, Sunday, November 15, 2015.
President Francois Hollande called the coordinated assault on Friday night an “act of war” as the capital’s normally bustling streets fell eerily quiet, 10 months after attacks on magazine Charlie Hebdo shocked the nation. “There is no need to revise the European Union’s entire refugee policy”.
Poland incoming government declared Saturday it would not accept refugees without security guarantees but Juncker urged them “to be serious about this, and not to give in (to) these basic reactions”.
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It is unclear what connection, if any, the individuals have to Islamic State, who have claimed responsibility for the attacks. “You feel that people are petrified”, he said.
