They wrought unprecedented violence on the streets of the French capital in a series of coordinated shootings and bombings that were the bloodiest attacks in Europe since the Madrid train bombings in 2004.
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Other world leaders called on the global community to fight terrorism.
“This is a horror”, the visibly shaken president said in a midnight television address to the nation before chairing an emergency cabinet meeting.
“It is clear that the real unification of the global community’s efforts is needed for an effective fight against this evil”, Putin said in a telegram to French counterpart Francois Hollande, according to the Kremlin.
The British Prime Minister called the attacks “horrifying and sickening” on his Twitter feed, having said on Friday he would help France in whatever way he could.
NY lit One World Trade Centre, the tallest building in America, red, white and blue in solidarity with France after attackers killed at least 140 people in Paris.
“Teams have been dispatched to crowded areas around the city out of an abundance of caution to provide police presence and public reassurance as we follow the developing situation overseas”, the NYPD said in a statement.
London Metropolitan Police Service’s assistant commissioner Mark Rowley told the BBC that Britain’s threat level was under constant review, adding that policing across the country would be strengthened, with additional officers and checks.
Scenes of “carnage” were described by witnesses at the Bataclan, who said there was “blood everywhere”. Everybody dived for cover, thinking it was gunfire.
The Bataclan concert hall had been due to host a concert by United States rock band Eagles Of Death Metal.
“Then it calmed down a bit and I walked back to the front of the cafe and there was a whole pile of bodies, probably about seven on the left-hand side and four that had been sitting on the tables outside on the right-hand side, and a lot of injured. The FFF feels the pain of the bereaved families and those close to them”.
She said: “Me and all my classmates are so lucky to be safe, thoughts to those who have been passed”.
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Overshadowed by Friday’s terrorist attacks in Paris, the diplomats started discussions aimed at charting a path for a cease-fire and a political transition in Syria to end the country’s devastating war.
