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A covered body lies by a forensic studies tent at the Rue de Charonne in Paris early Saturday morning, following a series of coordinated attacks in and around the capital on Friday, which resulted in at least 120 casualties.
Loic Venance/AFP/Getty Images
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Loic Venance/AFP/Getty Images
A covered body lies by a forensic studies tent at the Rue de Charonne in Paris early Saturday morning, following a series of coordinated attacks in and around the capital on Friday, which resulted in at least 120 casualties.
Loic Venance/AFP/Getty Images
Paris remains mostly shut down Saturday morning as investigations continue into Friday night’s horrific terror attacks, which have left 127 dead and scores more wounded.
In a press conference early Saturday, French President Francois Hollande accused the Islamic State of staging the attacks, calling them an “act of war.” He said the military would continue to patrol France’s streets in coming days to provide residents with a sense of security.
French authorities continue to remove bodies from the Bataclan concert hall, where at least 80 people were killed by men firing automatic rifles.
Concertgoers described scenes of horror at the venue, TV channel France 24 reported:
“There was blood everywhere, corpses everywhere. We heard screaming. Everyone was trying to flee,” said Pierre Janaszak, a radio presenter who attended the concert and hid with several others at the venue.
Dozens of others were reportedly killed on the sidewalks outside cafes and bars in a working-class part of central Paris.
While authorities said late Friday that they believed all of the attackers had been killed, they continued to encourage Parisians to stay home. They announced that almost all city facilities and buildings would be closed on Saturday, and sporting events would be canceled. Many subway stations also remain closed.
Bruce Hoffman, a national security expert at Georgetown University, told NPR’s Kelly McEvers on Friday night that the attacks were reminiscent of the 2008 attack in Mumbai, India, which left more than 250 dead.
Osama bin Laden urged al-Qaida fighters to stage such attacks in the West in 2010, Hoffman noted.
“They certainly weren’t amateurs,” Hoffman said of Friday’s attacks. “They were battle-hardened and they knew what they were doing. They had tremendous discipline, that they could deploy and strike at exactly the same time.”
France has also reimposed border controls that had been abandoned by most Western European nations in favor of a more open region, the BBC reported:
“Border and customs officers will check people, baggage and vehicles entering and leaving France by road, train, sea or plane, said customs official Melanie Lacuire.”
The Paris prosecutor’s office is expected to provide an update on the death toll and the investigation later today, CNN reported.