Speaking from the Elysée presidential palace the morning after France saw its worst day of violence since World War II, Hollande said the attacks were “an act of war" committed by the Islamic State group’s "terrorist army”.
The French president said the atrocities were, “against France, against the values that we defend everywhere in the world, against what we are: A free country that means something to the whole planet."
France, he added, "will be triumph over the barbarism” of the IS militant group and “will act by all means anywhere, inside or outside the country".
Hollande declared three days of national mourning in the wake of the attacks.
The Socialist president announced a state of emergency on Friday night, as France reinstituted border checks.
Hollande said he would address parliament on Monday in an extraordinary meeting.
Gunmen and bombers attacked busy restaurants, bars and a concert hall at at least six locations around Paris on Friday evening, killing at least 127 people. The apparently coordinated gun and bomb attacks came as the country, a member of the US-led coalition waging air strikes against Islamic State group fighters in Syria and Iraq, was on high alert for terrorist attacks ahead of a global climate conference due to open later this month.
Hollande, who was attending an international football match with German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier when several explosions went off outside the Stade de France, declared a state of emergency in the Paris region and announced the closure of France's borders.
"This is a horror," the president said in a midnight television address to the nation before chairing an emergency cabinet meeting.
All emergency services were mobilised, police leave was cancelled and hospitals recalled staff to cope with the casualties.
france24.com
14/11/15
No comments:
Post a Comment