Saturday, November 14, 2015

Paris Friday the 13th


  1. On the evening of 13 November 2015, a series of coordinated terrorist attacks, consisting of mass shootings, suicide bombings, and hostage-taking, occurred in Paris, the capital of France, and its northern suburb, Saint-Denis. 
  2. 21:17 CET (UTC+1) – First suicide bombing near the Stade de France. The first explosion near the stadium was about 20 minutes after the start of an international friendly football match between France and Germany, which President François Hollande was attending. The first bomber was prevented from entering the stadium after a security guard patted him down and discovered the suicide vest; a few seconds after being turned away, he detonated his suicide vest, killing himself and a bystander. Investigators later surmised that the first suicide bomber had planned to detonate his vest within the stadium, triggering the crowd's panicked exit onto the streets where two other bombers were lying in wait.
  3. 21:25 CET (UTC+1) – Shooting at the rue Bichat. At approximately 21:20, the first shootings occurred, on the rue Bichat and the rue Alibert, near the Canal Saint-Martin in the 10th arrondissement. Attackers shot at people outside Le Carillon, a café and bar, before crossing the rue Bichat and shooting people inside the restaurant Le Petit Cambodge. According to French police, eleven people were killed at the restaurant, and an eyewitness said one of the gunmen shouted "Allahu Akbar". Le Monde reported 15 people were killed at these locations and 10 were critically wounded.
  4. 21:19 CET (UTC+1) – Second suicide bombing near the Stade de France. Ten minutes after the first bombing, the second bomber blew himself up near the stadium.
  5. 21:32 CET (UTC+1) – Shooting at the rue de la Fontaine-au-Roi. At 21:32, a man with a machine gun fired shots outside Café Bonne Bière, close to the terrace of the Italian restaurant La Casa Nostra, on the rue de la Fontaine-au-Roi where it intersects with the rue du Faubourg-du-Temple south of the rue Bichat. The Paris prosecutor said five people were killed and eight were injured. An eyewitness reported a gunman firing short bursts.
  6. 21:36 CET (UTC+1) – Shooting at the rue de Charonne. At approximately 21:36, two gunmen fired shots for several minutes at the outdoor terrace of the restaurant La Belle Équipe on the rue de Charonne in the 11th arrondissement where it intersects the rue Faidherbe, before returning to their car and driving away. Nineteen people were killed, including the wife of the bar, and nine were left in critical condition.
  7. 21:40 CET (UTC+1) – Suicide bombing on boulevard Voltaire. At about 21:40, on the boulevard Voltaire in the 11th arrondissement, near place de la Nation, a man sat down in the Comptoir Voltaire café and placed an order before detonating his suicide vest and killing himself. Fifteen people were injured, one of them seriously.
  8. 21:40 CET (UTC+1) – Three men enter the Bataclan theatre and begin shooting. At approximately 21:45, a mass shooting and hostage-taking occurred at the Bataclan theatre on the boulevard Voltaire in the 11th arrondissement. The American band Eagles of Death Metal was playing to an audience of around 1,500 people. About an hour into the concert, three dark-clad men with AK-47 assault rifles entered the hall. Witnesses heard shouts of "Allahu Akbar" just before the gunmen opened fire on the crowd. Initially, the audience mistook the gunfire for pyrotechnics. The attack lasted 20 minutes, and witnesses also reported seeing the attackers throw hand grenades into the crowd. A radio reporter attending the concert described the attackers as calm and determined, telling CNN they had reloaded three or four times.
  9. 21:53 CET (UTC+1) – Third suicide bombing near the Stade de France. Another 33 minutes after that, the third bomber detonated his vest nearby at a McDonald's.
  10. 22:00 CET (UTC+1) – Hostages are taken at the Bataclan. Around 22:00, the attackers took 60–100 concertgoers hostage as police gathered outside the venue. The band's members escaped without injury. A witness who escaped the attack told a journalist that the gunmen had mentioned Syria. One witness in the Bataclan said that a gunman yelled, "This is because of all the harm done by Hollande to Muslims all over the world." There were further attacks on police and first responders who arrived at the scene. Starting at 22:15, the Brigade of Research and Intervention (BIS) arrived on the scene, followed by RAID. The assault on the theatre only lasted three minutes and began at 00:20. Police forces launched the assault after reports that the attackers had begun killing hostages. Initial police reports estimated that 100 people were killed at the theatre, but the toll was later revised to 89. Two attackers died by detonating their suicide vests. Another was hit by police gunfire and his vest blew up when he fell. The area was cordoned off after the attacks. Identification and removal of bodies from the theatre took 10 hours, a process made difficult because some audience members had left their identification papers in the theatre's cloakroom.
  11. ISIL claimed responsibility for the attacks on the morning of 14 November. Less than a day after the attacks, the Al-Hayat Media Group, their media organ, launched a website on the dark web extolling them and recommending the encrypted instant messaging service Telegram. Claimed motives included ideological objection to Paris as a capital of "abomination and perversion", retaliation for French airstrikes in Syria and Iraq as well as the foreign policy of François Hollande in relation to Muslims worldwide.
  12. The attackers killed 130 victims and injured 352–368, with 80 taken to hospital in serious condition. Of the dead, 89 died at the Bataclan theatre, 19 at La Belle Équipe, 15 at Le Carillon and Le Petit Cambodge, 5 at Café Bonne Bière and La Casa Nostra, and 1 at Stade de France. Victims were confirmed from at least 26 countries (some holding multiple citizenships). Among those who died at the Bataclan were a music critic of Les Inrockuptibles, an executive of Mercury Records France, and the merchandise manager of Eagles of Death Metal.

Sources:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/November_2015_Paris_attacks

No comments: