One media report dramatically summarized what happened, as if it was a cinematic plot. One eyewitness said the police on the street, creeping towards the Bataclan, looked like "they were in a movie."
"On a night when thousands of Paris residents and tourists were reveling and fans were enjoying a soccer match between France and world champion Germany, horror struck in an unprecedented manner. Terrorists -- some with AK-47s, some reportedly with bombs strapped to them -- attacked sites throughout the French capital and at the stadium where the soccer match was underway."
My Friday the 13th tweet, send out a few minutes before 10 AM Eastern USA, I now find haunting: "Woke to a red dawn...."
What do we know about November 13th?
- 1914 – Zaian War: Berber tribesmen inflict the heaviest defeat of French forces in Morocco at the Battle of El Herri.
- 1947 – The Soviet Union completes development of the AK-47, one of the first proper assault rifles.
- 1995 – A truck-bomb explodes outside of a US-operated Saudi Arabian National Guard training center in Riyadh, killing five Americans and two Indians. A group called the Islamic Movement for Change claims responsibility.
- 2001 – War on Terror: In the first such act since World War II, US President George W. Bush signs an executive order allowing military tribunals against foreigners suspected.
- 2015 – the November 2015 Paris attacks, A set of coordinated terror attacks in Paris, France including multiple shootings, explosions, and a hostage crisis in the 10th arrondissement of Paris and the 11th arrondissement of Paris.
At least 6 coordinated attacks occurred. Sky News is saying 158 were killed in Paris. All attackers have been killed by law enforcement officers or died by suicide, states Fox News, after reports circulated all night that some were still at large.
Update: By November 14, 2015, the number of deaths was restated as 128 people killed by the terrorists. Reportedly, 8 terrorists were known dead, with 7 of them dying by suicide.
The Bataclan is a theatre located at 50 boulevard Voltaire in the 11th arrondissement of Paris.
Built in 1864 by the architect Charles Duval, its name refers to Ba-Ta-Clan, an operetta by Offenbach, but it is also a pun on the expression le tout bataclan(the whole caboodle), the oldest written use of which predates Offenbach in a journal entry of 11 Nov 1761 by Favart. The nearest Métro stations are Oberkampf on Line 5 and Line 9 and Filles du Calvaire on Line 8.
Some individuals escaping from the Bataclan mentioned they had to get back to their cars parked on the rue La Fayette. The Fayette factor?
We're there visual precursors, syncinematically?
