PARIS ATTACKS: WHAT WE KNOW SO FAR ABOUT THE DEADLIEST TERROR ATTACK TO HIT EUROPE IN A DECADE
At
least 129 people are dead, and another 352 injured, after three teams
of jihadis struck the Stade de France football stadium, a handful of
bars and cafes, and then finally the Bataclan concert hall.
FIRST TWO ATTACKS: STADE DE FRANCE
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The attacks began at 8.17pm GMT at the Stade de France where the French
football team was hosting Germany in an international friendly.
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The game was being watched by 80,000 spectators, among them was
President Francois Hollande who had to be evacuated from the stadium.
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The first explosion, a suicide bombing, was at an entrance to the
stadium. Ahmad al Mohammed from Syria approached the stadium with a
match ticket when he was frisked by a security guard who turned him
away. Al Mohammed backed away from the gate and detonated his vest
killing one other person. Bilal Hadfi blew himself up several minutes
later.
THIRD ATTACK: LE PETIT CAMBODGE AND LE CARILLON BAR
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At 8.25pm GMT a separate team of gunmen arrived in a Black Seat and
attacked diners at popular Cambodian restaurant Le Petit Cambodge and Le
Carillon bar in the trendy Canal Saint-Martin area of eastern Paris,
killing 15.
FOURTH ATTACK: LA CASA NOSTRA PIZZERIA AND LA BELLE EQUIPE BAR
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The same unit then drove about 500 yards to La Casa Nostra pizzeria and
opened fire on diners on the terrace of the restaurant, killing at
least five people.
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From there, the militants drove around a mile south-east – apparently
past the area of the Bataclan concert venue – to launch another attack,
this time on La Belle Equipe bar in Rue de Charonne. At least 19 people
died after the terrace was sprayed with bullets at 8.38pm GMT. The
attackers then drove off.
FIFTH ATTACK: CAFÉ ‘COMPTOIR VOLTAIRE’
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Five minutes later, Ibrahim Abdeslam, 31, set off a suicide vest
outside the outside cafe 'Comptoir Voltaire' on the Boulevard Voltaire
and close to the Bataclan theatre. He hired a black Seat car used in the
attack.
SIXTH ATTACK: BATACLAN MUSIC HALL
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At 8.49pm GMT, the third group (believed to be three men and a woman)
armed with AK-47s stormed the Bataclan music hall and began shooting
members of the crowd. Survivors claim three blew themselves up and a
fourth person was shot dead by police before they could detonate their
bomb.
SEVENTH ATTACK: NEAR STADE DE FRANCE
At
around 8.50pm GMT a third blast took place near the Stade de France,
this time by a McDonald’s restaurant on the fringes of the stadium. The
boom caused terror among spectators who had already been attempting to
flee the stadium following the first two explosions.
Night of terror: The above graphic shows how the events of the night unfolded, with the death toll reaching 129
AFTERMATH:
- On Saturday morning, ISIS claimed responsibility for the attacks across Paris, saying 'eight brothers wearing explosive belts and carrying assault rifles' conducted a 'blessed attack on... Crusader France'.
- On Saturday afternoon, three people travelling in a grey VW Polo were arrested at the French/Belgian border when police traced the car after it was sighted outside the Bataclan theatre at the time of the attacks.
- One of the Bataclan suspects was found carrying a Syrian passport under the name Ahmed Almuhamed who travelled to France as a migrant through Greece on October 3. Ferry tickets reveal he travelled with another man named as Mohammed Almuhamed.
- Omar Ismaël Mostefai, 29, from Courcouronnes, Paris was also named as a Bataclan suicide bomber. The petty criminal and father-of-one was known to police as a radical and had travelled to Algeria and Syria. He was identified by the fingerprint on a severed digit found after he detonated his suicide belt. Mostefai is believed to have been radicalised by a Belgian hate preacher of Moroccan descent claimed to have regularly preached at his mosque in South West France. Mostefai's father, a brother and other family members have been held and are being questioned.
- The black Seat Leon used by the terrorists who murdered diners outside the Casa Nostra pizza restaurant and the La Belle Équipe cafe was found abandoned 20 minutes away in Montreuil with a cache of weapons inside.
- Seven people were detained in Belgium linked to the atrocities - three at the border and four in Brussels. Five are from the Molenbeek area of Brussels known as a 'den of terrorists'.
LATEST DEVELOPMENTS:
- French police are still hunting for three gunmen on the run and an ISIS bombmaker likely to have made the suicide vests.
- Three of the men believed to be at the heart of the eight-strong ISIS cell were brothers, it emerged on Sunday night. An international arrest warrant has been issued for Brussels-born Frenchman Salah Abdeslam, 26, who is accused of renting a Volkswagen Polo used by the suicide bombers.
- It also emerged on Sunday night that police found Abdeslam near the Belgian border early Saturday but let him go after he showed them his ID card. Officers pulled over the car being driven by Abdelslam on Saturday morning on the A2 motorway between Paris and Brussels. Two other men were also in the Seat car. At the time, officers in Paris knew that Abdeslam had rented the car used by the killers which had been abandoned near the theatre but the information had not been transmitted to those responsible for conducting the border checks.
- His brother Ibrahim, 31, blew himself up in a solo attack outside cafe Comptoir Voltaire after renting a black Seat found abandoned today filled with AK-47s and ammunition. A third sibling, named as Mohamed Abdeslam, has been arrested in the Belgian capital.
- On Sunday evening the French defence ministry announced that the country's warplanes had bombed Islamic State's stronghold in Syria's Raqa, destroying a command post and a training camp, the defence ministry said. Ten fighter jets were involved, dropping 20 bombs.
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