PARIS -- PARIS (AP) — Coordinated terrorist attacks turned Paris into a theater of blood and calamity 10 years ago Thursday, with gunfire on café terraces, explosions by a stadium and a nighttime massacre at the Bataclan concert hall leaving 132 people dead and hundreds injured.Many families measure time as “before” and “after” the attacks.
The night reshaped France’s sense of safety and purpose, hardening security while deepening a civic reflex for solidarity that endures a decade on.Paris is marking the Thursday anniversary with tributes led by President Emmanuel Macron and Paris Mayor Anne Hidalgo at each attack site.The events start at Gate D of the Stade de France in Saint-Denis, where the first victim, Manuel Dias, was killed, then move to the café terraces in the 10th and 11th arrondissements and finally the Bataclan.
Parents, partners and friends of victims will stand closest to the plaques for each minute of silence, with a small group of relatives beside Macron for the wreath-laying under the ceremony’s “families first” protocol.At Place de la République, Parisians are leaving candles, flowers and notes at the foot of the statue of national symbol Marianne, as in 2015, and are following the ceremonies on a giant screen.Children are coming with parents to light candles and lay flowers as small, familiar gestures that turn the square into shared memory.
City officials have asked the public to keep gatherings calm and give families space at the memorials.On the eve of the anniversary Wednesday, the statue and surrounding buildings were lit in blue, white and red and dozens gathered for a nighttime vigil, candles at their feet.“Ten years later, the emotion is still intact” and hope must be shared “despite the pain and the absence," Hidalgo said at the event.The commemorations will culminate with the Jardin du 13-Novembre, a new memorial garden opposite City Hall.
Conceived with victims’ associations, it bears the 132 names of t...