helshades:

… For your English-speaking purposes, here are all the verified, actual facts concerning the terrorist attacks in Paris, as taken from the first newspaper in France (Le Monde), meaning sources checked scrupulously and real, official numbers. Accept no imitation!

I’ve been reading an impressive (if unsurprising) lot of nonsense about the attacks as well as their aftermath, both in French and in English, so I figured we all could do with fact checking and the odd detox, couldn’t we.

What happened:

• Several terrorist attacks were led simultaneously in the late evening of Friday 13, November in several locations in Paris as well as just north in the suburban town of Saint-Denis, where the French national stadium is located (the Stade de France).

How and when it happened:

• the first explosion was heard at 21:20 in Saint-Denis right outside the Stade de France, during a friendly football match between France and Germany. Three explosions occurred in total. President François Hollande, who was attending the match, was immediately evacuated. We now know that one of the terrorists at least had a ticket to the match but was stopped before entering by a security guard: that was when the terrorist blew himself up. The three terrorists died the same way, and there was only one innocent victim.
  

• In the meantime, the first attack occurred in Paris, in a bar named Le Carillon and in restaurant Le Petit Cambodge, both located around the corner of rue Bichat and rue Alibert, in the much-populated 10th arrondissement. Two men got out of a car and started shooting at the patrons with automatic weapons. (14 dead)
• In the café Bonne bière (at the corner of rue Faubourg-du-Temple and rue de la Fontaine au roi), same scenario. (5 dead)
• rue de Charonne, also in the 11th arrondissement, identical attack before several cafés and restaurants (19 dead)

• at the restaurant Comptoir Voltaire (boulevard Voltaire), a man blew himself up right after ordering from the counter; the terrorist managed to kill only himself, fortunately.

• finally, the deadliest attack was led inside the Bataclan theatre when four men irrupted in the middle of a metal concert to shoot at the crowd with assault rifles. If a number of people in this 1,500 seat hall managed to get out, there were at least 89 dead. That was when hostages were taken, and police forces led an attack against the terrorists, who were killed or killed themselves.
  

Numbers:

As of now, at least 129 persons are dead. 352 were wounded, 99 of whom are said in “an absolute state of emergency”.

Seven terrorists are dead, but we now know that they acted divided in three teams, and several are alive and have fled the country.

This is the deadliest attack ever perpetrated on French soil, and the first time that kamikazes attacked on French territory.

Who did it and what do we know?

• Daesh (they are not a State, mind you) claimed to have commanded the attacks in a communiqué that speaks of attacks “minutely” prepared and blames France for taking part of the war in Syria, for “insults to prophet Muhammad”, etc.

• survivors from the Bataclan attack, including several journalists who were covering or simply attending the concert, overheard the terrorists talking about Syria and Irak.

• a Syrian passport was found near one of the bodies but we don’t know whether it belongs to the terrorist in question. The passport is this of a man born in 1990, unknown to French police.
  

• police investigation led to identifying at least one Frenchman amongst the seven terrorists who died last night. He had a criminal record. He was born in 1985 in Courcouronnes, Essonne, Île-de-France and he’d been condemned eight times for small time crimes, but never incarcerated. He had been signalled as “radicalised” by the police but had never been close to any terrorist group before.

• surveillance tapes and witness reports led the French investigation to two cars: a black Seat and a black Polo with Belgian plates, rented by a French who resided in Belgium.

• police search and questioning have been going on in Belgium, in a municipality nearby Brussels (Molenbeek-Saint-Jean); the investigators believed they have identified several of the terrorists who managed to flee.

• procureur (public prosecutor) François Molins spoke of three teams, leading “coordinated actions”, equipped with the same type of weapon and wearing the exact same type of explosive vests composed of acetone peroxide with the same type of pushbutton device.
  

Administrative situation in France right now:

• The President immediately declared the state of emergency in the whole country, which is an exceptional state (the intermediary state between normal situation and a state of siege). Such measure can only be decided by a council of ministers and cannot be prolonged beyond 12 days except by law.

• This means that the prefects (heads of the départements) may declare curfews for people or vehicles, institute protected zones with restricted access, forbid public reunions, either in the streets or within buildings; and the police may search the houses of suspects at any time; it is even possible to take control of the media temporarily. For now, it seems that interdictions to gather in public places will last until Thursday 19.
  

• The borders are NOT closed. Controls, however, were re-established at the borders temporarily, which is an exceptional measure as France is one of the countries within the Schengen Space.
  

• Three days of national mourning have been declared and a minute of silence will be observed in all public buildings on Monday. Schools will be open.