French press review 14 November 2015

The press comes to terms with the horror on a Black Friday the 13th in Paris; The death toll is up to 120 and counting after eight suicide bombers unleashed an unprecedented killing spree in the French capital, forcing President Hollande to declare a state of emergency.

DR

Everyone’s big splash is the string of coordinated attacks in and around Paris late Friday which left more than 120 people dead. These were the worst terrorist strikes in France's history as the assailants struck at least six very different venues, including the emblematic Stade de France and the Bataclan concert hall in eastern Paris where 1,500 music fans had packed the popular venue for a rock gig with the US band Eagles of Death Metal.

The front pages tell the story: “Carnage in Paris”, that’s according to Libération. “Horror” l’Equipe, “Terrorist massacre in the heart of Paris” Aujourd’hui en France, “War in the streets of Paris, Le Figaro and “it’s all out war this time”, according to Le Parisien.

The front-page captions are illustrated with spectacular clichés of scenes of horror in a city under siege, as heavily armed police, backed by 1500 soldiers scrambled across the city in a massive security operation after the activation of the under the maximum alert “Alpha Red plan” This as medical emergency workers armed equipped with scored of ambulances attended to the wounded.

Libération has a minute by minute account of the attacks as they occurred starting from the three kamikaze who reportedly blew themselves up killing five people outside the Stade de France. The stadium was packed with 80,000 fans watching the friendly between France and Germany.

An estimated 100 music lovers were also killled at the Bataclan concert hall in eastern Paris where an estimated 1500 attended a live show by the  US band Eagles of Death Metal.

There were more shootings in five other popular Friday night hangouts in the city centre. Libé also collected eyewitness accounts indicating that seven of the eight terrorists probably took part in several attacks, before blowing themselves up.

Although no one had claimed responsibility for the attacks, the left-leaning publication quotes eyewitnesses as saying that the terrorists clearly referred to the French military intervention in Syria.

This was the most deadly terrorist attack in Europe, according to Le Figaro. The right-wing newspaper claims that all anti-terrorism experts had predicted that an attack of such proportions would occur in France and intervention units had actually been preparing to face it for a long time.

The publication also explores what it called this kamikaze threat which had become a cause of concern for France. It recalls that as recently as in June one of its senior reporters had warned of the danger of suicide bombers being imported into the country after the reported death of nine French citizens in suicide attacks carried in Iraq and Syria.

Le Figaro says a websy site has opened a new twitter account under the “hashtag Priez pour Paris” or “Pray for Paris”, in which more than a million people have posted messages of sympathy over the last 6 hours in an unprecedented outpouring of emotions.