A medic tends to a man near the Boulevard des Filles-du-Calvaire after an attack in Paris, France, on Nov. 13, 2015. (Photo : Getty Images)
French President Francois Hollande ordered the closure of the country's borders in the aftermath of the Paris attack on Friday evening. Latest count placed the death toll at 60 and hundreds of injuries in three separate shooting incidents.
Hollande also placed the country under a state of emergency, the first time since the Algerian War that a national leader used that power again. In closing its borders, Frances seeks to prevent the attackers from leaving the country, reports Business Insider.
In a televised address, the president said "This is horror" to describe the unprecedented terrorist attack. Hollande was the Stade de France national stadium watching a friendly soccer match between France and Germany where two explosions rocked the event.
Hollande left the stadium aboard a police helicopter as he rushed to the Interior Ministry to hold an emergency cabinet meeting at midnight to manage the situation.
Although the game went on, the crowd panicked when they heard the two explosions. According to TF1 television, the death count in the stadium explosion reached 35 people, including two of the suspected suicide bombers.
Besides the explosion at the stadium, a shooting at a popular rock music venue turned into a hostage-taking, reports Reuters. Another shooting happened at mid-evening outside the Petit Cambodge, a Cambodian restaurant in Paris's 10th district. Elite police teams covered the areas, while bystanders were evacuated. There are at least 60 hostages in the Bataclan music hall where the Eagles of Death Metal held a performance.
With the Thursday night drone attack on Jihadi John, western security sources believe an Islamist military group is behind the attacks in Paris, although no one yet has claimed responsibility for the carnage.
