At Least 153 Dead in Paris Following Widespread Terror Attacks Throughout City

At least 153 people have been killed in Paris after multiple explosions and shootings at at least six different locations during a coordinated terror attack throughout the French capital, authorities said.

Some 100 of those killed were hostages attacked Friday night at the Bataclan concert hall, police said, where a sold-out rock concert was underway. Police raided the theater just before 1 a.m. local time. As police closed in, the attackers set off suicide bomb belts, killing themselves.

All attackers, at least four, are dead, Paris Prosecutor Francois Molins said. The dead gunmen were wearing explosive belts, authorities said.

The terrorists shot up restaurants outside Bataclan before barging into the hall and beginning the bloodshed.

More than 1,000 people were inside the hall at the time of the rampage, watching an Eagles of Death Metal show, authorities said. At least 112 people were killed there.

Gunmen in the theater were killing hostages one by one and screams and gunfire could be heard from outside during the hostage situation, CNN reported. {snip}

Explosives were also used on the hostages inside, officials said.

Julien Pearce was able to escape and told CNN of 10 minutes of uninterrupted gunfire after the black-clothed terrorists stormed the theater, sending the crowd to the ground. He said one gunman was unmasked and was no older than 25.

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Two people opened fire at the Le Carillon bar, while another shot up the Cambodge restaurant in the city’s 10th district, according to French media.

Kalashnikov-wielding gunmen attacked a Korean restaurant in the Bastille area of the city, while grenade blasts were also heard.

It is thought that at least 11 died in the restaurant shootout, while gunfire was also heard in other bars around the French capital.

Three explosions were heard near Stade de France, where France was hosting Germany in a soccer game. President Francois Hollande was there and was taken out by security to Place Beauvau, the interior ministry.

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At least two of the explosions were carried out by a suicide bomber and killed at least three people. The bodies were found near two of the stadium entrances and outside a McDonald’s.

During a midnight local time address to France, Hollande took the drastic step of closing the country’s borders and declared a state of emergency, “which means certain places will be closed and travel may be banned.”

The state of emergency is the first declared in France since the 2005 riots across suburban housing estates– as Hollande spoke of ‘an unprecedented terrorist attack’.  A general curfew was declared–the first time in France since World War II.

Hollande canceled his trip to Turkey for the G20 summit. He also deployed an extra 1,500 soldiers to Paris.

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There’s been no claim of responsibility, but the attacks come just a day after the United States announced a drone strike in Syria that likely killed Jihadi John, the Islamic State’s British-accented executioner.

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Friday’s attack is already the most deadly in modern French history. An attack on a train by French army officers in the OAS–an organization which opposed liberation for Algeria–in 1961 killed 28.