France has paid an emotional tribute to the 130 people killed 10 years ago during a rampage by Islamic State gunmen and suicide bombers at cafes, restaurants and the Bataclan concert hall. President Emmanuel Macron was among senior officials who paid their respects with a minute of silence and the laying of wreaths before the Stade de France.
The attacks on November 13, 2015, began with suicide bomb blasts outside the Stade de France, where then-President Francois Hollande and the German foreign minister were watching a friendly soccer international. Gunmen then opened fire at five other locations in central Paris. The assault was the deadliest on French soil since World War Two.
The commemorations will culminate with the inauguration of the 'November 13 Memory Garden,' a new memorial garden opposite City Hall. It is a stone enclosure with granite blocks engraved with the victims' names, evoking the attack sites. The Eiffel Tower has been lit in the colours of the French flag, and church bells have rung across the capital.
Sophie Dias, daughter of bus driver Manuel Dias who was the first victim, spoke at the ceremony, her voice trembling with tears. 'Since that November 13, there is an emptiness that cannot be filled,' she said. 'The absence is immense, the shock is intact and the incomprehension remains.'
Victims' associations say two survivors of the attacks later committed suicide, bringing the total death toll to 132. Survivor Sebastian Lascoux, who was inside the Bataclan, still suffers from post-traumatic stress and cannot be in crowded places or enclosed spaces.
A decade on, the threat of such attacks in France has mutated. Militant jihadist groups such as Islamic State no longer have the same means to coordinate attacks on French soil, but their online propaganda is still effective and able to radicalise youngsters fascinated with violence on social media.
