Bells rang out across Paris on Thursday as France marked the 10th anniversary of the 2015 attacks that killed 130 people, including a victim near the Stade de France where a football match was underway. The stadium was one of several targets hit by Islamic State gunmen and suicide bombers on 13 November 2015, when France were playing Germany in a men's friendly.
President Emmanuel Macron attended remembrance ceremonies at each of the attack sites, writing on social media: “The pain remains.” At a memorial garden in central Paris, he told survivors and relatives: “Everything will be done to prevent any new attack and to ruthlessly punish those who would dare to attempt it.” He noted that 85 attacks have been foiled in a decade, including six this year.
Sophie Dias, whose father Manuel was killed outside the Stade de France by the first bomb, fought back tears as she described a “void that never closes”. Speaking at the gate where he died, she said: “We are told to turn the page, but the absence is immense, the shock is intact and the incomprehension remains.”
At the Bataclan concert hall, where 90 people died during an Eagles of Death Metal concert, the band’s frontman Jesse Hughes joined survivors and victims’ relatives to sing “You’ll Never Walk Alone”. Arthur Dénouveaux, president of the survivors’ group Life for Paris, said: “One thing unites all victims of terrorism: the will for it to never happen again to anyone else.”
The sole surviving attacker, Salah Abdeslam, is serving a life sentence. His lawyer said he is open to participating in restorative justice with victims. France plans to open a terrorism memorial museum in 2029, featuring objects such as a bullet-riddled menu from La Belle Équipe restaurant and a concert ticket donated by a mother who lost her daughter at the Bataclan.
