Horror and carnage in Paris terror attack

France declared a state of emergency and secured its borders Friday night after attackers unleashed a coordinated wave of explosions, gunfire and hostage-taking in Paris that left more than 140 people dead.

Taken together, the assaults represented the deadliest day of attacks in France since World War II, and one of the worst terrorist strikes on Western soil since Sept. 11, 2001.

At sites across Paris — a soccer stadium, restaurants, a concert hall — the attackers carried out suicide bombings, hurled grenades and shot hostages dead in a frenzy of violence that paralyzed the city. Late into the night and early this morning, heavily armed security forces flooded the streets while panicked residents and tourists sought safety indoors.

Friday was the second time this year that the City of Light has been a scene of mass murder. In January, Islamist gunmen attacked satirical newspaper Charlie Hebdo and a kosher supermarket, leaving a total of 16 dead. The latest violence will only heighten the tension on a continent that is already on edge from the accumulated strain of a historic migration crisis, growing Islamist extremism and increasingly polarized politics.

World leaders condemned the attacks, and French President Francois Hollande vowed revenge, though there was no claim of responsibility.

“We are going to lead a war which will be pitiless,” Hollande said outside the Bataclan concert hall, scene of the most bloodshed. “Because when terrorists are capable of committing such atrocities, they must be certain that they are facing a determined France, a united France, a France that is together and does not let itself be moved, even if today we express infinite sorrow.”

The attacks were quickly celebrated online by backers of the Islamic State and other extremist groups. The scale and sophistication of the attacks will likely prompt questions about how the planning for such an operation evaded the scrutiny of French intelligence services.

The killers traced an arc across the city, targeting a half-dozen lightly secured facilities where tourists and residents had been enjoying the sort of experiences and events that define Friday night in Paris on a cool November evening. Soccer games, concerts and evening meals were all violently disrupted by the sounds of explosions and gunfire.

The scene of the worst carnage was the 19th-century Bataclan concert hall, one of the city’s most famous music venues, where hundreds of people had gathered for a show by an American band, Eagles of Death Metal. As attacks reverberated elsewhere in the city, gunmen stormed the building. Witnesses said three or four men clad in black used assault rifles to mow down audience members, shooting some as they dove to the floor seeking safety.

Police surrounded the building, and amid the boom of explosions and rattle of gunfire, moved in, shooting dead at least two attackers. As police secured the hall, they found evidence of a massacre inside, with at least 118 people dead, Paris deputy mayor Patrick Klugman told CNN.

Government personnel guided survivors of the attack, wrapped in gold-colored heat blankets, down the street to waiting buses. Several had blood spattered on their clothing.

At other sites across the city, attacks left dozens more dead.

Outside a café, witnesses reported seeing piles of bodies in the street, the café windows having been riddled with gunfire.

At the soccer match, terrified fans gathered on the field, having been barred by authorities from leaving, after suicide bombers detonated explosives outside the stadium just north of Paris. The explosions near the stadium forced authorities to evacuate Hollande, who was among thousands watching a match between France and Germany.

Across Paris, normal city life came to a halt. Subway lines were shut down, and authorities advised residents to stay indoors. People who had been on the street in areas near the attacks fled in a panic.

Until the early hours of the morning, gunmen were thought to remain at large. But just before 4 a.m. today, police announced that all the attackers had been killed.

Hollande went on national television Friday night to announce a state of emergency, including restrictions at French borders and the deployment of the army. The president’s office said 1,500 French troops would hit the streets of Paris to back up police.

The border controls came amid growing signs across Europe that the continent’s tradition of free movement is at grave risk. Despite rules for passport-free travel, Sweden instituted border checks this week to better control an unprecedented flow of migrants from the Middle East, southern Asia and Africa crossing into the country. Slovenia rolled out razor wire on its border with Croatia.

Although the new French border controls were expected to be strict, international airlines and trains appeared to still be operating.

In Washington, President Barack Obama appeared in the White House briefing room to offer condolences and U.S. help “to bring these terrorists to justice.”

He said the wave of violence was not just an assault on France but “an attack on all of humanity and the universal values we share.”

“It was a bloodbath,” said Julien Pearce, a radio reporter in France, in an interview with CNN.

This story was originally published November 13, 2015 at 10:41 PM with the headline "Horror and carnage in Paris terror attack."