At least 150 people have been killed in a series of co-ordinated attacks in the heart of the French capital today.
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“The president reiterated the United States’ steadfast, unwavering support for the people of France, our oldest ally and friend, and reaffirmed the offer of any necessary support to the French investigation”, a White House statement said late on Friday.
Under France’s state of emergency laws, entire cities can be put on lockdown and any concert hall or entertainment establishment can be shut down or subject to a search.
Hollande cancelled plans to travel to Turkey at the weekend for a G20 summit.
“This is a horror”, the visibly shaken president said in a midnight television address to the nation before chairing an emergency cabinet meeting.
Rep. Peter King (R-N.Y.), chairman of the Homeland Security Subcommittee on Counterterrorism and Intelligence tweeted that the attacks-which included so-called “soft targets including a restaurant, soccer game and concert-were a “nightmare scenario”.
British Prime Minister David Cameron says he is “shocked” by the Paris attacks and violence.
“Again the capital is suffering at the hands of those who seek only to wreak havoc and destruction on civil society”, Enda Kenny said. Later, he said the men were speaking French. “We will do whatever we can to help”.
At least three others were killed in explosions near the stadium just north of Paris, where a France-Germany football match was taking place on Friday night.
The radio reporter was at the Bataclan, a theater and concert hall in Paris’ 11th district Friday night, listening to an American rock band perform.
“If there is any update on the match on Tuesday we will announce in due course”.
Many appeared hesitant to leave amid the uncertainty after France’s deadliest attacks in decades.
“We stand prepared and ready to provide whatever assistance the government and people of France need to respond”.
A short time later, he was holed up on the first floor of the venue, badly injured, and posting news in real time of the unimaginable terror that was unfolding around him. He said both Al Qaida and ISIS have relied on the strategy of coordinated attacks in the past.
At one point, authorities said hostages were being held in the theater before French special police teams stormed the building.
And things have become complicated by wall-to-wall media coverage – with attackers nowadays positioning themselves “for maximum publicity”, a senior anti-terror official recently told AFP on condition of anonymity.
In Boston, the police department said it deployed additional resources and was working closely with federal authorities but saw no credible threat in the city, where Islamist militant sympathizers set off home-made bombs at the Boston Marathon finish line in April 2013. “France must be strong and great”, he said.
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In April, Algerian IT student Sid Ahmed Ghlam was arrested after he shot himself in the leg by accident, leading police to uncover a plot to attack a church in Paris’ Villejuif suburb.
