<<Print>>More than 150 people have been killed in a series of coordinated terror attacks in the heart of Paris which have paralysed the French capital.
As many as 118 people alone were massacred at a concert in the Bataclan theatre following a hostage situation last night that concluded in a suicide attack while another 11 were shot down at a Cambodian restaurant.
While death toll estimates range from 120 to 150, early reports suggest a further 200 people are being treated for injuries, with 80 of them seriously hurt.
Investigators said at least eight attackers were dead by the end of the violence - the bloodiest in Europe since the Madrid train bombings in 2004 - with seven of them having blown themselves up.
Four of the attackers were killed in the concert hall, three by activating their suicide vests while one was shot by police.
Just five miles away, suicide bombers blew themselves up outside the Stade de France sports stadium where the French football team was playing Germany while another died in a street in eastern Paris. Other gunmen or accomplices could still be at large.
French police arrested one suspected attacker who claimed to have been recruited by ISIS alongside three other extremists, it has been reported.
French President Francois Hollande declared a national state of emergency following what he called 'unprecedented terror attacks', reinstating border checks and deployed 1,500 extra troops to the capital. Initially it had been reported that France had closed its borders.
Terrorists launched a total of six coordinated attacks at high profile sites across Paris:
Two suicide bomb attacks at a bar near the Stade de France led to President Hollande being evacuated from the stadium. He has since declared a national state of emergency.
Two terrorists with AK47s burst into the Bataclan concert hall, where rock band Eagles of Death Metal were performing. They sprayed bullets and threw grenades into thousands of people before they started slaughtering people one by one.
A terrorist armed with an AK47 killed at least 11 people at Cambodian restaurant Le Petit Cambodge on Rue Bichat at around 9pm.
Gunfire and bomb blasts have also been reported at the Louvre art gallery, the Pompidou Centre and Les Halles shopping centre.
Witnesses have been telling of the horror which unfolded inside the Bataclan theatre, where more than 1,000 people were watching rock band Eagles of Death Metal perform.
The told of how AK47 wielding terrorists shouted 'Allah Akbar' as they 'blindly' opened fire into a crowd of people.
'It looked like a battlefield, there was blood everywhere, there were bodies everywhere,' Marc Coupris, 57, told the Guardian.
He added: 'I was at the far side of the hall when shooting began. There seemed to be at least two gunmen. They shot from the balcony.'
They shot at 'very young' people in the violent attack which lasted around 15 minutes, said Julien Pearce, a journalist at Europe 1. The gunmen, who witnesses have described as young men in theirs 20s, reloaded three or four times as they gunned down innocent people at random.
'Three men with Kalashnikovs and wearing flak jackets burst in in the middle of the concert,' another man, a man named Hervé, told the Telegraph after escaping through an emergency exit.
He said the men were not wearing masks, adding: 'They just started spraying bullets. I saw a girl hit right in front of me. There must have been quite a few dead.'
Another man said: 'The men came in and started shooting. Everyone fell to the ground. It was hell. I took my mum, and we hid. Someone near us said they have gone, so we ran out.'
And Gilles Avel said: 'We are all terrified, and have been told to get away as soon as possible.'
A witness who was near the front of the concert when he saw a man wearing a cap firing into the crowd. He told the Liberation newspaper: 'He shot in my direction. People started falling and throwing themselves towards the ground.
'I think the guy next to me was dead. I went out of the emergency exit at the opposite end of the road. It was only once in the road that I started to see people covered in blood.
Another witness, Pierre Janaszak, a radio presenter, told AFP he was sitting in the balconies with his sister and friends, when they heard shots from below about one hour into the show.
'At first we thought it was part of the show but we quickly understood. They were three I think and they were just firing into the crowd.
'They were armed with big guns, I imagine kalashnikovs, it was a hell of a noise. They didn't stop firing.'
'There was blood everywhere, corpses everywhere. We heard screaming. Everyone was trying to flee.'
'They had 20 hostages, and we could hear them talking with them,' said Janaszak, who was hiding with several others in the toilet.
'I clearly heard them say 'It's the fault of Hollande, it's the fault of your president, he should not have intervened in Syria'. They also spoke about Iraq.'
A statement on Eagles Of Death Metal's Facebook page said: 'We are still currently trying to determine the safety and whereabouts of all our band and crew. Our thoughts are with all of the people involved in this tragic situation.'
The two explosions in a bar near the Stade de France stadium were detonated by suicide bombers, it has been confirmed.
A witness said the explosions were loud enough to be heard over the sound of cheering fans. Sirens were heard immediately and a helicopter was seen circling overhead.
A 27-year-old man, who was just 30ft from the explosion, said he felt like he was 'in a video game'.
Speaking to the Daily Mail, he said: 'There was an explosion in front of us. It was a very loud noise. At first I thought it was a bin that had been set alight. But then I thought it wasn't a fire cracker.
'Everyone stopped. A man was on the floor screaming. I don't know what happened to the man. I just heard him scream and move around the floor. He wasn't unconscious.'
As he approached the stadium door around three minutes later, a second bomb went off 15ft from where he was standing.
He added: 'It was a very loud noise. I've never heard anything like it. My heart jumped. There were 20 of us. We started running. The match had started 15 minutes before.
'The doormen started locking the stadium doors... It was shocking to see. I thought, 'that could have been me'.'