At least 160 people lost their lives including children and scores others injured following multiple explosions and shootings that took place almost simultaneously in different parts of Paris on Friday night. The attacks in Paris are being dubbed as deadliest since World War II.

According to AFP, at least 100 people were killed at packed Bataclan concert hall where attackers had held dozens of people hostage. The police stormed the concert hall and ended the hostage situation. At least three attackers were killed at the concert hall. A metal band from California, US was performing at the concert hall when the attackers stormed the venue.

Later, French President François Hollande visited the attacked concert hall and while speaking to media persons said that France is going to fight the terrorists. “France will be merciless in its fights against terrorists,” he said. Describing the attacks as barbaric, he said that the French nation will continue to stand united and firm against the terrorists.

Earlier, a series of powerful blasts were heard in the city and two of them occurred near a stadium where a football match between France and Germany was being played. French President François Hollande in his brief media talk termed the attacks in Paris most significant and declared state of emergency across the country.

Hollande announced to seal French borders in a bid to stop the attackers from fleeing and called for military reinforcements to bring the situation under control. French police said that the attackers executed two suicide attacks and one explosion through a bomb.

Three people were killed in an explosion outside the Stade de France north of the capital - during a match between Germany and France - police said. Spectators flooded the pitch as news of the attacks spread. Organisers started evacuating the stadium by three doors.

Another attack was reported at the Petit Cambodge restaurant, not far from the Bataclan venue. Stunned onlookers had begun to emerge from nearby bars, while many others continued to eat their meals in restaurants, apparently unaware of the carnage that had taken place only a few metres away.

President Francois Hollande and Interior Affairs Minister Bernard Cazeneuve announced that a crisis cell had been set up. US President Barack Obama said that Paris attacks are attacks on humanity. President Obama in his media briefing termed the attacks on French people as “attacks on humanity, and universal values that we share”.

“We stand prepared to provide whatever assistance French people need,” said Obama. “This is a heart breaking situation. We have been in contact with French officials to convey our condolences,” he said. Obama said that French people have been an extraordinary counter-terrorism partner of the US.

British Prime Minister David Cameron expressing shock over the Paris attacks said that his country will do whatever it can to extend help to France. “I am shocked by events in Paris tonight,” he wrote on Twitter. “Our thoughts and prayers are with the French people. We will do whatever we can to help,” he said.At the start of a nightmarish, bloody, apocalyptic evening in Paris, Carmela Uranga heard sounds near her apartment that she thought at first were merely fireworks.

Uranga, 47, a British-born mother of two young children, was eating an early dinner with her girls Friday when they heard "scary noises" and Uranga rushed to her window, making her girls stand back.

Uranga lives by the Le Petit Cambodge restaurant and the Le Carillon bar in the 10th arrondissement where the first of several terrorist attacks occurred Friday night. She was shocked and horrified by what she saw just under her window.

"People were running all over the place and then I saw bodies lying on the street," Uranga told The Daily Beast from Paris via telephone. "It was so surreal. I still can't believe I saw what I saw. I live in this wonderful, vital place which is like a small village in the midst of Paris. And I saw bodies!"As she surveyed the carnage below her window on Rue Bichat, she saw two men she believes were the shooters get in what she said appeared to be a a "getaway" car that passed just under her window.

"It was a black car with Belgium license plates," she said. "There was a driver and a passenger. I saw the passenger very clearly. He looked so young, 18, no more than 20 at the oldest. There was no doubt in my mind these were the shooters. They were leaving the scene so calmly. Another car was blocking the only other way out so they had a clear path. This seemed to be a very planned attack. It all happened so quickly will never forget seeing those two pass by in the car under my window."

Police believe gunmen killed 14 people at the Cambodian restaurant and another dozen at the nearby bar in a spate of attacks that killed at least 160 people across France's capital. More than 100 people were killed in the Bataclan theater alone after three terrorists detonated their explosive vests when police barreled in.

Diedra Liepelt of San Diego was one of the first to heard that her daughter's friend, a hostage inside the theater, had survived.He's crying and traumatized but he survived!" Liepelt told The Daily Beast.

Friends of Helen Jane Wilson, a caterer for the American metal band performing at the theater Friday night, posted hysterical messages on Facebook worried about her after she was apparently shot in the leg in theater after a friend died in her arms.

"My friend Helen has been shot," Anne Pillow Olsen wrote. "She was the caterer for the band. She's on her way to the hospital. She is a New Orleans girl. I am sick about this. It has to stop."

At least 160 dead in Paris terror attacks, IS claims responsibility

AGENCIES — UPDATED ABOUT 3 HOURS AGO

PARIS: In the deadliest violence to strike France since World War II, a wave of coordinated attacks left more than 128 dead in scenes of carnage in Paris Friday. The self-styled Islamic State militant group has claimed responsibility for the attacks.

The assailants struck at least six very different venues, ranging from the national sports stadium to a pizzeria.

At least 128 people were killed and 180 were left injured at multiple locations in the French capital
Attackers targeted Bataclan concert hall, a sports stadium and restaurants
Gunmen used AK-47s; one of the three explosions outside the stadium was caused by a suicide bomber
At least eight militants were behind the attacks
France declares emergency, closes borders

Map showing sites attacked in Paris on Friday. —AP Interactive

French President Francois Hollande on Saturday blamed the self-styled Islamic State (IS) group for the attacks in Paris that left at least 128 dead, calling them an “act of war”.

The multiple attacks across the city late Friday were “an act of war...committed by a terrorist army, the Islamic State, against France, against...what we are, a free country,” Hollande said.

Hollande said he would address parliament on Monday in an extraordinary meeting and the country would observe three days of official mourning for the victims of Friday's attacks

“Terrorist attacks of an unprecedented level are underway across the Paris region,” Hollande said in an emotional televised message. “It's a horror."

President Francois declared a state of emergency across the entire country and cancelled his trip to the G20 summit due to take place this weekend in Turkey, in wake of what he called an unprecedented terrorist attack.

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.

According to a statement, issued from the presidency, 1,500 extra soldiers deployed to Paris after attacks.

The Paris metro railway was closed and schools, universities and municipal buildings were ordered to stay shut on Saturday. However some rail and air services are expected to run.

Paris closes city facilities, Disneyland

Schools, markets, museums and major tourist sites in the Paris area were closed on Saturday and sporting fixtures were cancelled following the terror attacks on the French capital, local authorities said.

“All city facilities are closed today,” Paris City Hall said on its website .

The list comprised schools, museums, libraries, sports halls, swimming pools, tennis courts, food markets and district town halls.

Only civil registration offices, to record marriages, will be open, it said, adding that security would be beefed up at town halls

Separately, the French secretary of state for sports issued instructions to sports federations to cancel matches this weekend.

Cancelled events include a European Champions Cup rugby match between Racing 92 and the Glasgow Warriors.

Irish rock band U2 also called off a Paris concert planned for Saturday.

The Eiffel Tower was closed according to a message on its website that did not say how long it would remain shuttered.

Disneyland Paris, which is located on the eastern rim of the Paris region, said it would not open on Saturday “in light of the recent tragic events in France and in support of our community and the victims of these horrendous attacks.”

“Our thoughts and prayers go out to all of those affected by these horrible events,” it said.

Concert venue attacked

A full house of 1,500 people were packed into the popular venue in eastern Paris for a concert by the US band Eagles of Death Metal.

About an hour after the band took to the stage, the whole concert hall was turned into “a bloodbath” according to a French radio reporter at the scene.

Four black-clad gunmen wielding AK-47s stormed into the hall and fired calmly and methodically at hundreds of screaming concert-goers, killing at least 100.

Fellow radio presenter Pierre Janaszak heard the first shots and thought it was part of the act.

“But we quickly understood. They were just firing into the crowd.”

Four assailants were killed after police stormed in — three by activating their suicide vests and a fourth shot dead — but not before they had mown down some 100 people.

All members of the California-based band that was to perform at the Paris venue are safe and have been accounted for, a US official briefed by the Justice Department said.

Stadium attacked

Three loud explosions were heard outside France's national stadium during the first half of a friendly international football match between France and Germany.

At least five people died outside the glittering venue which staged the 1998 World Cup final with several others seriously hurt.

One of the explosions was near a McDonald's restaurant on the fringes of the stadium.

At least one of the two explosions in rue Jules-Rimet was a suicide bomb attack.

French President Francois Hollande, who was watching the game, was immediately evacuated.

The match was eventually completed and the stadium emptied in a relatively calm atmosphere.

Japanese restaurant targeted

A little further east on Rue de Charonne 18 people were killed, with one witness saying a Japanese restaurant was the main target.

“There was blood everywhere,” the witness said.

Another man said he heard shots ring out, in sharp bursts, for two or three minutes.

“I saw several bloody bodies on the ground. I don't know if they were dead,” he said.

Cambodian restaurant attacked

Pierre Montfort lives close to a Cambodian restaurant on Paris' Rue Bichat, a little further north, was the scene of another attack.

“We heard the sound of guns, 30-second bursts. It was endless. We thought it was fireworks,” he said.

Florence said she arrived by scooter a minute or so after.

“It was surreal, everyone was on the ground. No one was moving inside the Petit Cambodge restaurant and everyone was on the ground in bar Carillon,” she said.

“It was very calm — people didn't understand what was going on. A young girl was being carried in the arms of a young man. She seemed to be dead.”

Pizzeria targeted

A few hundred metres from the Bataclan, the terrace of the Casa Nostra pizzeria was targeted.

Five people were killed by attackers wielding automatic rifles, according to witness Mathieu, 35.

“There were at least five dead around me, others in the road, there was blood everywhere. I was very lucky."

Explosion at Boulevard Voltaire

An eighth attacker blew himself up in Boulevard Voltaire near the concert venue, as the streets of the capital were filled with the sound of police sirens and convoys of ambulances shipping the injured to hospital.

'Corpses everywhere'

The most bloody of the attacks was at the Bataclan, where police said around 100 people were killed.

“We heard so many gunshots and the terrorists were very calm, very determined,” Julien Pearce, a reporter for France's Europe 1 radio, told CNN while the hostage crisis was still underway.

“They reloaded three or four times ... and they didn't shout anything. They didn't say anything." He said friends were still inside as he spoke.

“They are hiding in some kind of room in the dark and they text(ed) me, and they are very afraid, of course, and they are waiting for the police to intervene, but it's been over two hours now and this is terrible."

Hundreds of police had gathered outside and armed officers eventually stormed the venue at around 2335 GMT, accompanied by a series of explosions.

At the Stade de France, spectators flooded the pitch as news of the attacks spread before organisers started evacuations.

Rescuers evacuate people following an attack in the 10th arrondissement of the French capital Pari.—AFP

Stunned onlookers had begun to emerge from nearby bars, while many others continued to eat their meals in restaurants, apparently unaware of the carnage that had taken place only a few metres away.

“We heard gunfire, 30 seconds of fire, it was interminable, we thought it was fireworks,” said Pierre Montfort, who lives near rue Bichat, where one of the attacks took place.

160 people lost their lives including children and scores others injured following multiple explosions