SHARE
COPY LINK

TERROR ATTACKS

November 13th: France remembers 130 victims of Paris terror attacks

Two years to the day since the devastating terror attacks in Paris, French President Emmanuel Macron led a series of sober ceremonies around the French capital on Monday to commemorate the 130 victims.

November 13th: France remembers 130 victims of Paris terror attacks
Photo: AFP

Macron was joined by his predecessor François Hollande and Paris mayor Anne Hidalgo at the site of each attack on Monday morning.

“Two years on, Paris remembers,” the city's mayor Anne Hidalgo tweeted, with the hashtag “Fluctuat Nec Mergitur” — battered but not sunk, Paris'
motto — which became a defiant slogan after the attacks.

The ceremonies began at the Stade de France stadium in the suburb of Saint-Denis where one person was killed when three bombers detonated their suicide belts as France played Germany in a friendly match.

Macron laid a wreath before heading down to the 10th arrondissement to the site of the attack on the Carillon bar and its neighbouring restaurant Le Petit Cambodge.

The names of the 15 victims gunned down were read out in front of the survivors and the families of victims.

Macron, Hollande and Hidalgo then headed round the corner to the Café Bonne Biere where five people were killed.

(Macron and Hidalgo nearthe Café Bonne Biere)

Short ceremonies were also due to take place at the Belle Equipe, Comptoir Voltaire and the Bataclan concert venue where 90 were killed.

The event was purposefully low key and sober at the request of the victims' families. Macron did not make a speech.

The services echoed those that took place on the one year anniversary of the attacks, when palaques were unveiled at each site bearing the ames of htose who were killed.

The association Life For Paris, which was set up in the aftermath of the attacks as a support group for the victims will hold a private event later on Monday.

Macron was due to meet members of the victims' group as they released balloons into the skies over the capital to remember the dead.

Families will also gather at the Town Hall in the 11th arrondissement.

Some family members of those killed have boycotted the event as they aggrieved at the lack of answers two years on.

The chief surviving suspect Salah Abdeslam remains in custody but is refusing to speak to investigators about his role.

READ ALSO: Paris terror attacks two years on: What we know

FLOODS

Tragedy in Trebes: Woman who lost husband in terror attack loses parents in floods

A French town that was the scene of a jihadist shooting spree earlier this year has been swamped by floods, with one local woman known to have lost her husband in the attack and her parents in the latest disaster.

Tragedy in Trebes: Woman who lost husband in terror attack loses parents in floods
Photo: AFP

The sleepy medieval town of Trebes was targeted by a gunman in March who killed four people during a rampage that saw him take shoppers and staff hostage at a local supermarket.

The attack became a focus of global attention when a police officer at the scene, 44-year-old Arnaud Beltrame, agreed to swap himself for a hostage before being killed by the gunman, who claimed allegiance to the Islamic State group.

Seven months later, the Super U supermarket, like much else in Trebes, has been swamped by devastating storms that ripped through the region of southwest France near the city of Carcassonne on Sunday night.

At least 11 people have died in the flooding in the Aude area of France and three people are missing after violent rainstorms turned the normally placid local rivers into raging torrents that washed away bridges, roads and homes.

A woman named Martine Mazieres, who lived in nearby Villedubert has suffered a triple bereavement in the terror attack and flooding.

Her husband, a 61-year-old retired winemaker named Jean Mazieres, was the first victim of the jihadist after he was shot dead in a parked car in an apparently random shooting.

The woman's elderly parents, both in their 80s, were washed away Monday by waters of the Aude river, which officials say rose eight metres (26 feet) in just five hours.

“It's horrible. The widow has lost both her parents,” a neighbour, Valerie Puerta, told AFP. “Every day a nurse would come to check on the couple.They lived by the river in Trebes.”

Another neighbour named Nathalie told Le Parisien newspaper: “When I heard that the town was affected I immediately thought of Martine because I knew that her parents lived in the most affected area.

“I thought it wasn't possible she could be affected once again. I'm horrified. “

Marc Rofès, the mayor of Villedubert, the village nearby Trebes where Martine Mazieres lives said: “I naturally went to visit her and the first thing she said was that she felt that fate was against her.

“I saw her on Monday morning, she was angry because she could not get any news from her parents. At that moment, she was simply worried. Who would have thought she would once again be confronted by mourning,” said another neighbour named Monique.

 

SHOW COMMENTS