The violence in Paris shocked the world. The terror group ISIS claimed responsibility, the French President declared it “an act of war,” and even Pope Francis called it a “piecemeal Third World War” with “no religious or human justification for it.”
Seven of the terrorists were killed, and they killed more than 100 people Friday night.
Here’s a timeline of the attacks, according to Paris prosecutor Francois Molins, citing surveillance footage and witness accounts. The six sites were attacked by three groups of terrorists acting in unison.
9:20 p.m. Friday: Stade de France
The first explosion occurs outside Stade de France near entrance D about 9:20 p.m. as France plays Germany in a soccer match.
Moments later, a second explosion echoes inside the stadium.
Each blast is executed by a suicide bomber. Both wear similar explosive belts with batteries, bolts and buttons. Both blasts happen on the same street, Rue Rimet.
French President Francois Hollande is in the stadium watching the game. He is safely evacuated.
As the game is being broadcast, viewers can hear distant explosions as players pass the ball on the pitch.
Four people are killed outside the venue, in the Paris suburb of Saint-Denis.
One of those four killed is a man who walked by one of the suicide bombers.
9:25 p.m.: Two restaurants
Armed with Kalashnikov-style assault rifles, gunmen arrive in a black auto to the scene at the corner of Rue Alibert and Rue Bichat in Paris’ 10th district.
The masked attackers kill 15 people at the restaurants Le Carillon and Le Petit Cambodge.
Ten more people are seriously wounded.
About 100 shell casings are discovered at the scene.
9:30 p.m.: Stade de France again
The second explosion occurs at the stadium, near entrance H.
9:32 p.m.: A La Bonne Biere
At the corner of Rue Fontaine au Roi and Rue Faubourg du Temple in the 11th district of Paris, five people are killed and eight others seriously wounded in a shooting outside the bar A La Bonne Biere.
These attackers were also driven to the scene in a black Seat.
Once again, about 100 shell casings are found at the scene.
9:36 p.m.: La Belle Equipe
Another black vehicle arrives carrying attackers to the restaurant La Belle Equipe at 92 Rue de Charonne.
The gunmen fire their assault weapons on people sitting outside the eatery.
Nineteen people are killed, and nine more are seriously wounded.
Like the previous attacks, about 100 shell casings are discovered at the scene.
9:40 p.m.: Comptoir Voltaire
A suicide bomber blows himself up inside the restaurant Comptoir Voltaire at 253 Boulevard Voltaire in the 11th district.
The bomber uses a similar explosive mechanism as the two suicide bombers at Stade de France.
One person inside the restaurant is seriously injured, and several others are slightly injured.
Also 9:40 p.m.: Bataclan
Three attackers armed with assault weapons arrive in a black VW Polo to the concert venue Bataclan.
The gunmen enter the small concert hall and open fire as a performance is underway by the U.S. band Eagles of Death Metal, a blues rock group from Palm Desert, California.
Eighty-nine people are killed. Gunmen fire upon people as they lay on the floor, killing execution-style, recounts one concertgoer.
The attackers enter firing pump rifles and shouting “Allah akbar,” a witness later tells Radio France.
One patron, Julien Pearce, a radio reporter, sees two of the gunmen in black clothing enter the venue “very calm, very determined” and firing “randomly.”
“It was a bloodbath,” he says.
The gunmen take members of the audience hostage and regroup them in front of the stage.
Police later find most of the victims there.
After gathering the hostages, the attackers make a brief address and mention Syria and Iraq.
Meanwhile, some patrons find a place to hide inside the venue, where they stay for more than two hours.
9:53 p.m.: Near Stade de France
About 400 meters from the Stade de France, a third blast occurs on Rue de la Cokerie between a McDonald’s and the sports stadium.
The remains of a suicide bomber are subsequently discovered.
12:20 a.m. Saturday: Raid upon Bataclan
French elite police units storm the Bataclan more than two hours after the attackers slaughtered the concert’s patrons.
Three terrorists are killed during the police counterassault.
One of them is killed by police gunfire and by the explosives he is wearing.
The other two activate their suicide belts and die as police raid the concert hall.
One of the terrorists is identified by a fingerprint as a 30-year-old French national from the Paris suburb of Courcouronnes. That individual had a criminal history and was identified as having been radicalized in 2010, but that person had not been accused of terrorism.
In addition to the 89 dead, police find several people injured.
Concert patron Denis Plaud and about 15 other people hid for more than two hours in a small room upstairs in the theater, struggling to keep quiet, he says. Gunfire was so close it shook the walls.
Police tell him not to look around the concert hall as he emerges from hiding.
But he looks anyway.
“There was blood everywhere. Even people alive were covered with blood,” he later tells reporters. “There was especially on the ground floor a lot of dead bodies and blood, and some people had been alive and had to stay for several hours among dead corpse[s] and they went out covered with blood.”
Authorities later report that four people died on Avenue de la Republique, in the 10th district of Paris, but officials don’t immediately provide the exact time.
