Church bells at Notre Dame and other Paris churches rang on Thursday evening to signal the beginning of an official commemoration ceremony attended by President Emmanuel Macron.
At the ceremony at the Bataclan concert hall, Macron pledged to strengthen the fight against terrorism and respond to emerging forms of extremist violence.
“Ten years after the deadliest terrorist attacks France has ever endured, we have done everything possible to prevent and push back jihadism from the outside. But it has re-emerged in another form from within – silently, harder to detect, and harder to predict. Faced with this reality, France reaffirms its commitment to persist in the fight against terrorism while upholding the core values of justice and freedom,” he said.
Flowers, candles, and photographs were placed at the sites of the attacks, including cafés, restaurants, the concert hall, and the Stade de France stadium to honor the victims.
On November 13, 2015, Islamic State gunmen and suicide bombers struck within minutes of one another. Suicide bombers detonated outside the Stade de France; gunmen sprayed bullets across café terraces; and three attackers stormed the Bataclan concert hall, killing 90 people before police ended the attack.
Salah Abdeslam, the only attacker who survived, is currently serving a life sentence. The others either blew themselves up or were shot dead.
A terrorism memorial museum, due to open in 2029, will display some 500 objects linked to the attacks or to the victims.
