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On the evening of November 13, an attack on Paris shocked the entire city as over 120 people were reported dead and hundreds more injured while onlookers could do little other than call for help. The coordinated attack at multiple points in the city carried out at the same time saw chaos reign for a while before the police could exercise any control, but by then a fair amount of damage was done.One of the points where a suicide bomber detonated his accessory was near Rue Jules Rimet, which is adjacent to Stade de France. The stadium that held the 1998 World Cup final at that moment was hosting the World Champions Germany in an international friendly against the French national team. These events obviously had an impact on the occurrences inside the stadium once the news had filtered through and many stories emerged through after much of the initial smoke cleared.Here are 5 of those football related stories that ensued in the French capital on that fateful evening.
#1 Martin Kelly in Paris cafe
Martin Kelly put up a post on Instagram that would later prompt concerns for his safety. The post itself was rather innocuous, but the subject of it was a little cafe called La Perle. Once news of the terrorist attack started picking up, it put Kelly’s social media post in sharp relief.
The photo of the cafe he posted was believed to have been one of the locations subject to attack. Fans then began to express worry over the safety of the Crystal Palace defender and for a while they feared the worst, only for the club and few journalists to alleviate those concerns with confirmation that the player was alright.
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However, the confirmation only came after some people posted a picture on Twitter of a scene from Paris, though the subject of the image appears to be Kelly or someone who looks vaguely like him, no confirmation of this was found.
#2 Fans run onto the pitch
The events that occurred in the City of Lights happened while the France v Germany international friendly was in progress at Stade de France. In fact, some fan taken footage of the game even captures the sound of an explosion.
The explosion is followed by cheers as a number of fans assumed the sound to be emanating from a firework. Only later would it be surmised that it was in fact a suicide bomber attempting to enter through one of the gates had detonated. It was followed by a couple of more explosions (some have reported 2 explosions while others heard 3 blasts) before people would find out what had actually happened.
Despite all of there events transpiring in the first half, the match would be played through to the end. After the match though, the spectators and the players alike would be held back in the premises of the stadium, and concerned by their own safety people would leave the spaces of the stands and rush onto the pitch.
#3 Antoine Griezmann and his sister at two separate attack venues
There were attacks simultaneously being orchestrated at several locations across Paris. The number of different areas that were directly hit is reportedly in the vicinity of 7. One of them was Stade de France, but the deadliest attack was believed to have been executed at the Bataclan theatre where a rock concert was in progress.
French national Antoine Griezmann was in the French national stadium with the rest of his side and the whole squad was held back at the venue for their safety after the news broke. His sister, at the same time, was fleeing the Bataclan theatre after it was attacked by gunmen who had opened fire at the crowd and are believed to have killed over 100 people in the vicinity.
The Atletico Madrid forward tweeted later to tell his story, he wrote: “Big thought for the victims of the attacks. God takes care of my sister and the French."
He later added in another tweet: "Thanks God my sister was able to exit the Bataclan. All my prayers go to the victims and their families."
#4 German team evacuated from their team hotel hours before the attack
Just hours before the actual attacks were carried out, the German national team would have been unnerved as they were forced to evacuate from the five-star Molitor hotel where they were staying in Paris due to a bomb threat. While, no one would have predicted what was to follow, it was an early indication that something wasn’t quite right.
The German team’s manager and former player Oliver Bierhoff confirmed that they evacuated the hotel because of a bomb threat. The team was then moved into a sports complex close to where the Roland Garros is held.
The head of security for the German football federation (DFB) added that the French police received an anonymous bomb threat and that by vacating the premises they could allow for a proper search to be conducted by the local authorities.
Though the team is currently back in Germany, they had to spend the night at Stade de France for security reasons as no one was allowed to leave the premises.
#5 France supporters sing \'La Marseillaise\' during evacuation
You would imagine that people who have just heard of an attack in their city would be panicked and scared in the aftermath. They probably were too, but when the French supporters were evacuated from the Stade de France, they were captured on camera singing the French national anthem – ‘La Marseillaise’.
A fan captured the goosebump inducing chorus on a camera and it’s been doing the rounds now, showing the sense of togetherness and solidarity in this time when the whole city, country and even the world has once again come face to face with ugly terrorism.
The French president Francois Hollande declared a state of emergency in the country following the attack, and though strong indications are that the origin of the attackers is Syrian, and the attack was supposed to be revenge for French interference in Syria, there is no definitive proof so far of that fact.
Nonetheless, from evidence of this video, they seem to have brought out any latent patriotism for the French.
