Paris attacks: A nation under siege
naky
www.diecastingpartsupplier.com
2015-11-24 15:36:00
Paris began its first official day of mourning on Sunday under heightened security following the country’s worst ever terrorist attack that killed 129 and left a nation feeling under siege.
The Eiffel Tower stood dark while the Louvre Museum and the Disneyland theme park were closed. Some 3,000 troops were deployed. People stayed home with loved ones. Public demonstrations were banned.
Brigitte Lesage, in Paris for the weekend from Le Havre in northern France, said she came to contemplate the meaning of the attacks. “The death toll was very heavy. I am definitely fearful for the future,” she said. “This is not over.”
Fr Brien Richard McCarthy, the priest, said that while France has been attacked many times, this seems different to him because the targets were all just ordinary citizens. “This is an attack on everyone?.?.?.?This is the French 9/11.”
The attacks were focused on popular bars and a concert hall, simple places that were beloved by locals but far from famous, where people of all walks of life went to relax with friends of a Friday evening.
It was different to attacking tourists sites or seats of government power. It was also different to the last big attack in January when 17 were killed in an assault on satirical newspaper Charlie Hebdo and a Jewish supermarket.
The victims on Friday could have been anybody. Over the weekend details of the fallen emerged, showing a diverse group of lawyers, students, journalists, technicians from about a dozen countries.
“We all face danger now, Paris is no longer a paradise and no one can expect to be safe,” said Pierre, a 37-year-old running in the Parc Monceau on Sunday, who had lost a friend at the Bataclan concert hall.
One of the first victims to be identified was Valentin Ribet, a young French lawyer who had studied at the London School of Economics and was working for Hogan Lovells. He was killed along with 89 others at the Bataclan.
Another victim was Nohemi Gonzalez, 23, one of 17 students from the California State University in Paris on a semester abroad. She was sitting outside with friends when the attack took place.
The state, while focusing on the security threat and hunt for accomplices, was also setting up makeshift counselling centres around the city, which on Sunday were welcoming a stream of people.
All public demonstrations are banned until Thursday. But still around 100 people were in the Place de la République, the traditional venue for mass gatherings, on Saturday night and on Sunday morning.