France declared a nationwide state of emergency after a night of attacks in Paris on Friday when gunmen sprayed restaurants with bullets, massacred about 100 concert-goers and also launched suicide attacks near the national stadium, the Stade de France.
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“We do not know if the passport was checked by other countries through which the holder likely passed”, Citizen Protection Minister Nikos Toskas, who is in charge of police forces, said in a statement obtained by the Associated Press and Reuters. He killed himself and a bystander.
The Paris prosector said seven attackers were killed, all of them in suicide bombings – a new tactic in France and the first such attack since the 7/7 bombings in London. A ministry spokeswoman said she could not confirm the precise number of arrests or give any further details.
However it has not yet been confirmed whether the Syrian passport was authentic, or was one of the many forged passports flooding into Europe with the refugee crisis.
A French police official says three Kalashnikovs have been found inside a Seat vehicle that was used in the attacks on central Paris.
Such a connection, if proven, would be particularly sensitive because if a killer did enter Europe among refugees and migrants fleeing war-torn countries, this could change the political debate about accepting refugees.
The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to be publicly named.
But his passport had not made it into the ambulance with him and soon after it was discovered, the French newspaper Le Point claimed – in a report that since appears to have been taken down – that he was one of the attackers. Any identity documents and fingerprint records would have to be matched with the remains of the attackers to establish whether they passed through various countries posing as refugees, or perhaps bought or stole passports along the way.
European officials said they believe a professional new squad of terrorists are inserting themselves into a few of these migrant voyages.
Earlier today, Germany confirmed that a man arrested in Bavaria last week, for possession of “many machine guns, revolvers and explosives”, might be related to the attacks.
French authorities have detained several suspects allegedly linked to a cell that carried out the terrorist attacks in Paris.
The French President also stated, “An act of war prepared, planned, from outside, with outside complicity, which an investigation will establish”. Meanwhile, California Governor Jerry Brown is ordering flags at the State Capitol be flown at half-staff in memory of the victims of the Paris attacks.
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It comes as more information emerges about the eight assailants responsible for a string of attacks in the French capital that left at least 127 people dead.
