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A bird flies in front of the Eiffel Tower, which remained closed on the first of three days of national mourning, in Paris, on Sunday.
Daniel Ochoa de Olza/AP
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Daniel Ochoa de Olza/AP
A bird flies in front of the Eiffel Tower, which remained closed on the first of three days of national mourning, in Paris, on Sunday.
Daniel Ochoa de Olza/AP
(This post was last updated at 10:04 a.m. ET.)
Paris remains largely shut down this morning as the country began holding memorial services for the victims of six coordinated attacks that left 129 people dead. As police continue to investigate how this happened, here’s what we know right now:
The Investigation:
— Police are looking for a suspect they believe was an eight assailant.
— The death toll remains 129. Three-hundred-fifty-two were injured and 99 people are in critical condition.
— Twenty to 30 of the victims are still unidentified. French Prime Minister Manuel Valls told reporters that they would be identified in the coming hours.
— Police have found what the believe is a getaway car used by some of the Paris attackers. “The Spanish model Seat car was found in a suburb some four miles east of Paris, matching the description of one used by some of the attackers Friday night,” NPR’s Soraya Sarhaddi Nelson reports. The BBC reports that police found “several Kalashnikovs” inside the car.
— Police have identified one of the dead attackers as 29-year-old Ismael Mostefai.
French officials say Mostefai was a French citizen from the city of Chartres and had been flagged for links to Islamic radicalism.
NPR’s Dina Temple-Raston reports that Mostefai was “seen as a risk but never linked to a plot.”
— Police in Belgium arrested seven people in connection to the Paris attacks, the public broadcaster RTBF in Belgium reports. Reuters adds that Belgian Justice Minister Koen Geens said the arrests were related to a vehicle with Belgian license plates. Witnesses, reports Reuters, say that a car with Belgian plates was spotted near the Bataclan concert venue.
— Authorities found a Syrian passport next to a dead suicide bomber at France’s national stadium. The AP reports:
“Officials in Greece say the passport’s owner entered the country on Oct. 3 through Leros, one of the eastern Aegean islands that tens of thousands of people fleeing war and poverty have been using as a gateway into the 28-nation European Union.”
Dina reports that investigators are still trying to determine whether the passport is real.
The Victims:
— Even though authorities urged Parisians to stay home, many poured out onto Place de la République — the same spot they fled to after the Charlie Hebdo attacks.
The New York Times spoke to Raphaella Giraudi, who was there with her 11-year-old daughter and 5-year-old son. She said: “I came here with my children to let them see that we should not be afraid.”
Journalist Geert Gordijn, of RTL News, posted this video:
The Reaction:
— The AFP reports that after a long meeting with French President François Hollande, former president Nicolas Sarkozy will demand a delay of United Nations climate talks that are scheduled to take place in Paris.
The AFP reports: “The French government has said the conference, which begins on November 30, will take place as planned, but one of the party sources said: ‘Going ahead with it would mean taking unbelievable risks.'”
— After the meeting, Sarkozy also addressed reports that one of the attackers may have posed a Syrian refugee. Per The New York Times:
“‘Europe should pull itself together and determine the conditions of a new immigration policy,’ he said… ‘Naturally, there is no link, but the concern arises. We need to rein in together the wave of migration ensuing from the Syrian situation.’
“The former president also called for harsh measures against those who even look up terrorist propaganda online.
“Referring to systems in place to protect France’s national security, he said: ‘It seems to me that we must draw lessons from its flaws and adapt measures concerning all those who consult jihadist websites, all those carrying out jihad.'”
— French media report that an extra 3,000 troops will be deployed across the country by Tuesday.
Article source: http://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2015/11/15/456094470/the-paris-attacks-what-we-know-right-now?utm_medium=RSS&utm_campaign=news