Paris bombings

[Peter Lemkin]

Here in continental Europe there is certainly a sense of fear and shock. Reports now are a minimum of 120 dead and that is expected to rise. As I write the six coordinated attacks took place between 4 and 5 hours ago - starting at about 10pm CET. France has taken the amazing precaution of closing its borders - surely more a show of resolve more than a tactical move - I'm sure whoever the attackers were they likely lived in France and spoke French. A state of emergency has also been declared in France, and all public events in Paris have been ordered closed for the remainder of the weekend, at least. Pres. Holland was actually at one public event [the main Paris football stadium] when two persons with suicide vests exploded them just outside - so he heard these explosions there from not far away. His security people removed him to relative safety, but I just heard that many ordinary football fans have only minutes ago been allowed to leave - several hours after the attack began.

Whatever this is - real attack or false-flag or a bit of both, with such carnage of between 100-200 to be dead by sunrise this will rock Europe and much of the World for quite a while. These victims were innocent of anything other than being French citizens. Two restaurants were shot up, one concert venue had the highest death toll, the football stadium, and two other locations I'm not sure of yet. Word now is that more gunmen are on the loose in Paris, which will add to the fear.....whether true or not. Obviously, this was a VERY well coordinated and planned set of attacks, and there may well be more coming soon in Paris or elsewhere. I've not heard of any reaction here in Czech Republic, but expect to see many more police and other security people about in the coming days. The EU is now effectively borderless, and one can drive from one country to another only very rarely seeing any controls at the borders. That may change, at least temporarily.

Thousands of French troops are in Paris streets now along with all police units called up. Paris is officially on lockdown and everyone is asked to stay indoors unless they have special reason to travel or be outside. Many Parisians opened up their homes to strangers on the street who didn't want to travel home. A State of Emergency exists in France for the first time since WW2.

Other European countries and major cities are considering enhanced security measures. Some jihadi websites are claiming this is revenge for French involvement in Syria. Too early to know if this is true, but it does seem likely to me. Keep in mind however that some 'jihadi' groups are backed by 'Western intelligence and military'; some are not.

I suggest we separate these posts from the Charlie Hebdo thread - while related, this is a whole new ugly episode - and making it a new thread. Obviously, the death toll will grow in the next hours. This is far from over; many of the injured will die and Paris and in fact Europe is much more in shock than with Charlie Hebdo [which I feel was partly, at least, false-flag or LIHOP]. Too early to tell what this was - except horrible.

Even the public transport throughout Paris has been closed and car traffic is being limited in some areas to emergency travel only.