Paris attacks: Scenes from the ground

Six different locations. More than 120 people dead. 

The coordinated attacks on Paris late on Friday (Nov 13) is the worst such violence in France's history. 

The assailants struck at least six different venues, ranging from the Stade de France football stadium to a sidewalk cafe.

Eight attackers are confirmed dead - seven from suicide vests, while one was shot. 

The horror was captured on video by many Parisians and uploaded to various social media channels. 

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Bataclan, a concert venue

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A full house of 1,500 people were packed into the popular venue in eastern Paris for a concert by the US band Eagles of Death Metal.

About an hour after the band took to the stage, the concert hall was turned into “a bloodbath” according to a French radio reporter at the scene as black-clad gunmen wielding AK-47s stormed into the hall and fired calmly and methodically at hundreds of screaming concert-goers.

One Instagram user uploaded a video of ambulances rushing to the scene:

 

 

Two hours later, with gunmen holding people within hostage, police stormed the venue. 

A video uploaded to Instagram purportedly shows the moment police entering the Bataclan:

 

 

 

Four assailants were killed after police stormed in – three by activating their suicide vests and a fourth shot dead – but not before they had killed at least 82 people.

Those who survived in the incident were quickly evacuated:

 

 

French President Francois Hollande visited the scene later, together with Prime Minister Manuel Valls and Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve.

 

A few hundred metres from the Bataclan, the terrace of the Casa Nostra pizzeria was targeted, and five people were killed by attackers wielding automatic rifles, according to a witness, reported AFP. 

 

 

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Rue de Charonne

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At a cafe, La Belle Equipe, on the sidewalk along the Rue de Charonne, 18 people were killed. One witness told AFP that he heard shots ring out for two or three minutes. 

Footage from an in-car camera shows the driver moving towards Rue de Charonne, before slowing down as a car in front stops and makes a U-turn, as shots ring out in the distance. 

 

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Stade de France

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A short clip being widely shared shows the moment in the friendly match between France and Germany at the Stade de France when a bomb goes off.

 

 

Three loud explosions were heard outside the stadium during the first half of the match.

At least four people died outside the venue, which staged the 1998 World Cup final, with several others seriously hurt.

One of the explosions was near a McDonald’s restaurant on the fringes of the stadium.

A photographer for the Associated Press describes the scene inside the stadium:

 

 

French President Francois Hollande, who was watching the game, was immediately evacuated.

The two sides played on to the end. Afterwards, bewildered fans poured onto the pitch while waiting for all the exits to be declared secure.

Fans later left the stadium singing La Marseillaise, the French national anthem.

 

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Le Carillon, a bar, and Cambodian restaurant Le Petit Cambodge

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Shots were fired on both establishments, which are opposite each other on Rue Bichat. 

The New York Times reports that about 14 people were killed here, with body bags seen outside the restaurant. 

One witness told AFP: “It was surreal, everyone was on the ground. No one was moving inside the Petit Cambodge and everyone was on the ground in (the adjacent) Carillon bar.

"It was very calm – people didn’t understand what was going on. A girl was being carried in the arms of a young man. She seemed to be dead.”

One Parisian uploaded this video after the shootings:

 

 

The morning after the attack, bullet holes can be seen on the windows of Le Carillon:

 

 

 

Sources: AFP, The Guardian, The New York Times