Paris attacks: Hannover stadium evacuated after ‘concrete threat’
Raid on apartment in Paris suburb of Saint-Denis has ended with the death of two suspects in a day of tension as two flights to the capital were diverted and a German stadium was evacuated | LIVE UPDATES
PARIS TERROR ATTACKS: Two dead, including a female suicide bomber and seven arrested in raids in the Paris suburb of Saint-Denis which targeted terror mastermind Abdelhamid Abaaoud. Earlier, two flights bound for Paris from the US were diverted due to security threats and German police evacuated fans from a Hannover stadium after a ‘concrete threat’. Both events come as French police hunt for a second fugitive responsible for the terror attacks in Paris last Friday which killed 129 people. You can catch up on how yesterday’s events unfolded here, and we’ll update this story throughout the day with fresh developments.
And that's where we’ll leave the blog tonight. Join us in the morning for more live updates of the crisis following the Paris massacre.
12.48pm: the bomb scare at Copenhagen airport is over. Danish police said on Twitter that “an overheard conversation about a bomb’’ sparked the evacuation. Commuter train and subway lines to the airport also were briefly halted.
12.22pm: Roissy Charles de Gaulle airport in Paris is being searched for “radicaliased indiviuals,” according to le Monde. Police say the searches are “not directly linked” to the Paris attacks, but “do concern individuals having shown signs of radicalisation”.
11.59pm: The main terminal at Copenhagen’s international airport has been evacuated because of “a suspicious bag.”
Police had no more details about the evacuation of Terminal 3, the main arrival and departure terminal. Television footage shows bomb experts, fire trucks and police outside the airport building.
The commuter train and subway lines to and from the airport were also halted.
Airport spokeswoman Sisse Roland Hansen says the terminal and airport metro station have been shut, and flights moved to other terminals, with no timescale for reopening.
11.46pm: The French authorities have said the discovery of a mobile phone at one of the crime scenes after the Paris attacks had led police to the Saint-Denis apartment. The last message on the phone, found near the Bataclan concert hall, said “Ok, we’re ready’’ and contained a detailed plan of the inside of the venue.
11.39pm: More from President Francois Hollande’s speech to the nation.
Mr Hollande said he wants a “large coalition” working together against Islamic State militants to destroy a group that threatens the whole world and “commits massacres” in the Middle East.
Speaking to an assembly of French mayors he said: “We need a robust legal framework to confront the circumstances...I have decided that we should reestablish control of our frontiers.”
Mr Hollande added: “The concept of the terrorists is to plunge our country into division” but he said France’s priority was now “eradicating radicalisation”.
“France will remain a country of liberty and culture...France will never give in to fear,” he said.
In the televised address, he said said the French aircraft carrier Charles de Gaulle had just left to help French military operations in Syria against IS.
11.15pm: President Hollande has thanked the police for their courage during today’s raids and stressed again that “We are at war with terrorism.”
He has added that “it is the jihadist oganisation Daesh that is radicalising people.
In the meantime, the French are expressing their greif for the death of police dog Diesel, killed when the suicie bomber blew herself up at the start of the raids.
The hashtag #jesuischien (I am a dog) is now trending on Twitter.
#JeSuisChien #RIPDiesel â¤ï¸
— salut c'est cool✌ (@SowSow25) November 18, 2015
10.34pm: French President Francois Hollande will make a statement on the Saint-Denis raids shortly. It's still not clear whether suspected terror mastermind Abdelhami Abaaoud was arrested or killed in the raids or if he remains free.
10.17pm: Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve is refsing to identify the dead suspects or those who have been arrested. However BMF TV is reporting that the female suicide bomber was a relative of Abdelhamid Abaaoud, who was suspected of harbouring him.
Paris prosecutor Francois Molins said authorities were working to determine the fate of the suspected mastermind of last week’s Paris attacks after a seven-hour police raid on an apartment where he was believed to be hiding.
Mr Molins said the police began the raid in the early hours local time today after gathering information that suspect Abdelhamid Abaaoud could be in a safe house apartment in the Paris suburb of Saint-Denis.
Mr Molins said the information was collected from tapped telephone conversations, surveillance and witness accounts.
He told reporters in Saint-Denis authorities were still working to determine who was inside. Seven people were arrested and two suspects were killed.
10.00pm: French police have announced the raid is over and police are now searching the apartment building.
It still hasn’t been confirmed whether they were planning an attack on the business district.
9.35pm: Police have escorted children and other residents from the scene of the standoff. One of the suspects remains in the apartment block that has been targeted by police for the last few hours.
9.15pm: The body representing Muslims in France said it would ask all 2,500 mosques in the country to condemn “all forms of violence or terrorism” in prayers this Friday.
The message will condemn such acts “unambiguously”, the French Muslim Council (CFCM) said.
9.09: Police have discovered an SMS message saying: “OK, we’re ready,” on the mobile phone of one of the Bataclan suicide bombers, according to French media.
The phone was found in a bin outside the rock venue where 89 people were murdered by three militants who then blew themselves up.
Meanwhile, BFM TV reports that another two people were arrested in the targeted building, bringing to seven the total number of people detained. A seven-year-old police dog named Diesel was also killed in the raids, blown up when the suicide bomber detonated her explosives vest.
This is Diesel. She is a 7-year-old police dog French police say was killed in today's raid. https://t.co/NRfvXRAo57 pic.twitter.com/Jqjwm6ooEP
— CNN International (@cnni) November 18, 2015
9.07pm: Austria’s interior ministry says terror fugitive Salah Abdeslam was on an EU-wide police list when he was stopped in Austria in September, and his presence in the country was reported back to Belgian authorities.
Ministry official Karl-Heinz Gruendboeck says Belgium had registered Abdeslam in the Schengen Information System on suspicion of unidentified criminal activity.
He said today Austrian police reported his presence to Belgian police.
Officials earlier said Abdeslam entered Austria from Germany on September 9 with two unidentified companions and they were stopped for a routine traffic check. They said they were planning a vacation in Vienna,
Abdeslam, 26, is the suspected driver of a group of gunmen in the Paris attacks. His brother, Brahim, was among the suicide bombers and killed one civilian after blowing himself up outside a restaurant.
8.41pm: The militants holed up in the apartment in Saint-Denis were planning an attack on La Defense business district in Paris, Reuters is reporting.
A judicial source told Reuters police had originally been hunting other suspects in St-Denis, but then realised that Abdelhamid Abaaoud was one of those barricaded in the building.
7.50pm: French and Russian air strikes in northern Syria have killed at least 33 jihadists with the Islamic State group in the last 72 hours, a monitoring group has said.
Dozens of IS fighters were also wounded in the raids which focused on the jihadists’ de facto Syrian capital of Raqqa, said Rami Abdel Rahman, director of the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, after strikes intensified following last week’s attacks in Paris.
7.35pm: Armed police have entered the town hall in Saint-Denis, the BBC is reporting. There is still no confirmation on the identity of the suspect still holed up in the apartment.
7.10pm: The French prosecutor has confirmed that a woman blew herself at the beginning of the raid. Five people have been arrested, he said: three men who were holed up in the apartment and a man and a woman who were detained near the building.
7.02pm: US authorities have cleared both Air France flights bound for Paris that had to be diverted after anonymous threats received after they had taken off.
Air France Flight 65 from Los Angeles International Airport to Charles de Gaulle Airport in Paris was diverted to Salt Lake City International Airport, Air France said in a statement. At about the same time a second flight, Air France 55, took off from Dulles International Airport outside Washington and was diverted to Halifax on Canada’s East Coast.
American authorities investigated and found no credible threat, according to an FBI statement released late Tuesday night. The Royal Canadian Mounted Police said investigators found no evidence of an explosive device after they searched the plane and luggage.
6.46pm: The owner of the flat where the suspects were holed up has told reporters he had no idea of their identities.
The man, who has been arrested by police, said before being hndcuffed and led away: “A friend asked me to host two of his buddies for a few days. I said there was no mattress, they told me; ‘It’s OK,’ they just wanted water and to pray.
“My friend said they were from Belgium. Then he said: ‘I was asked to serve, I have served, I wasn’t aware they were terrorists.”
6.42pm: French police have said six suspects were inside the building targeted in the Saint Denis raids.
Meanwhile, watch here a poignant moment between a father and son as the frightened child is comforted by his dad: ’They have guns- we have flowers’
6.22pm:BFM TV is reporting that a third person, a civilian passerby, was also killed in the raids.
You can watch live coverage of the raids here:
6.14pm: French authorities have now confirmed two suspects have died: one was shot by a police sniper, the other was a female who blew herself up. A third suspect remains in the apartment.
Two people have also been arrested.
Christiane Taubira, French justice minister, says the operation in Saint Denis is “nearing completion”.
6.09pm: French media are quoting police sources as saying at least two people have been killed in the Saint Denis raids, including a female suicide bomber who blew herself up.
5.52pm: What we know about the Saint Denis raids:
• The raids on a flat in the northern Paris suburb are targeting Abdelhamid Abaaoud, the Belgian national believed to be the mastermind of Friday’s massacre.
• Abaaouod was the target of Western airstrikes on the Islamic Stronghold of Raqqa in Syria last month, according to a European security official.
• Terror fugitive Salah Abdeslam is believed to be holed up in the Saint Denis flat with Abaaoud. Abdeslam is thought to have rented a car used in the attacks. Police say several people are still holed up in the flat.
• At least one person has died in the Saint Denis raids and several police have been wounded.
• Saint Denis is near the Stade de France, one of the targets of Friday’s attacks which killed 129 people.
5.30pm: A number of explosions are being heard as the army moves in to supplement the heavy police presence. French media is reporting that a woman has blown herself up during the raids but these are so far unconfirmed. Reports that three people have been arrested are also unconfirmed.
Counted at least 20 explosions in last minute
— Tom Steinfort (@tomsteinfort) November 18, 2015
Fugitive Salah Abdeslam is also reported to be holed up in the Saint Denis flat alongside Abaaoud.
5.25pm: We’re getting some eyewitness accounts of the raids in Saint Denis: Baptiste Marie, a 26-year-old independent journalist who lives near the scene of the standoff, told Associated Press: “It started with an explosion. Then there was second big explosion. Then two more explosions. There was an hour of gunfire.”
Resident Amin Guizani, 21, said: “There were grenades. It was going, stopping. Kalashnikovs. Starting again.”
5.07pm: Terror mastermind Abdelhamid Abaaoud is the target of the raids in the northern Parisian suburb of Saint Denis and at least two people have been killed in the exchange of gunfire, police have confirmed to AFP.
The 28 year old Belgian national was thought to be in Syria. Police have also been searching for Salah Abdeslam.
It is not yet clear whether Abaaoud is one of up to four people still holed up in the apartment. One may be a woman.
AFP has confirmed that at least one person has died: the BBC is reporting that at least one police officer is dead: French police so far have said only that several officers have been injured.
4.05pm: An official says a large police operation is under way in the Paris suburb of Saint Denis and it’s believed to be linked to the deadly attacks on the French capital.
The police official says there have been exchanges of gunfire and special SWAT teams are on the scene. The official was not authorised to be publicly named according to police policy.
Police tell CNN raid is underway in #Paris suburb; you can hear gunfire in this video. https://t.co/HGJSkNaOYH pic.twitter.com/FgLyVeVMzy
— CNN (@CNN) November 18, 2015Police have blocked off the area around Place Jean Jaures in Saint Denis, just north of Paris.
French authorities have said they are searching for at least two people involved in last Friday’s attacks.
Ambulances can be seen and sirens heard in French television footage from the scene.
2.45pm: Two Air France flights bound for Paris from the United States have been diverted due to security threats.
CNN reports that one jet was diverted to Salt Lake City, Utah, after taking off from Los Angeles, while the second left Washington and was diverted to Halifax, Canada.
Both planes - flight 65 out of Los Angeles, and flight 55 out of Dulles International Airport in Virginia outside the US capital - have landed safely.
A Federal Aviation Administration spokeswoman confirmed to AFP that flight 65 was diverted to Salt Lake City.
“It landed safely,” she said but declined to comment on the reported security threat.
“Passengers are being removed from flight. No word on why flight diverted,” Canada’s CBC said on Twitter of the jet that landed in Nova Scotia.
Social media comments alluded to an emergency landing of the jet that left Los Angeles, saying it had touched down in Utah, with many police cars on the tarmac.
“It was diverted to Salt Lake City because of a security incident,” CNN quoted the FAA as saying. AFP
Air France plane surrounded by flashing lights, away from the terminals in SLC. pic.twitter.com/jR8rMtk75W
— GregMaxfield (@GregMaxfield) November 18, 2015Per FAA, #AF65—LA to Paris—diverted to Salt Lake City due to a "security incident". https://t.co/codxvNqXPP pic.twitter.com/gvL1TmLvL1
— Flightradar24 (@flightradar24) November 18, 2015#AF55, Washington-Paris, has also diverted and is on the ground in Halifax. https://t.co/MT4bJ7jdga pic.twitter.com/U9uhivoG7i
— Flightradar24 (@flightradar24) November 18, 20152.30pm:President Barack Obama has lashed out at Republicans who insist on barring Syrian refugees from entering the US in the wake of the Paris attacks, deeming their words offensive and insisting “it needs to stop.”
“Apparently they’re scared of widows and orphans coming into the United States of America,” Obama said.
12.40pm: The Paris attacks, apparently planned under the noses of French and Belgian authorities, raise the possibility that Islamic State adherents have found ways around the dragnet.
French authorities say two of the attackers knew each other in prison, but it isn’t clear how the group communicated in plotting and co-ordinating the Friday attacks. Intelligence services have monitored communications from one terror suspect, Belgian Islamist Abdelhamid Abaaoud, between Syria and alleged associates in Belgium and Morocco.
Low-tech methods exist for communicating off law enforcement’s radar including passing written notes or relaying messages through friends or relatives.
But law-enforcement agencies also have long warned that encrypted platforms built for gaming or other commercial purposes to safeguard privacy are being used by would-be terrorists to communicate.
The Wall Street Journal’s Margaret Coker examines how a tense debate between governments that want inside access to those encrypted tools and tech companies that say are trying to protect customer data and are wary of government overreach is likely to be exacerbated.
11.40am: Emma Parkinson, the sole Australian casualty of the Paris terrorist attacks last Friday night, is too traumatised to speak publicly about her experience, her uncle Michael Parkinson has revealed.
Mr Parkinson said Emma had been released from hospital after surgery on her hip where she had been hit by a bullet while entering the Bataclan concert hall to see Californian band Eagles of Death Metal.
“Physically, Emma is doing much better and she is expected to make a good recovery,” Mr Parkinson said.
10.40am: Surveillance video obtained by The Associated Press indicates a team of three attackers carried out the shootings at a Paris sidewalk cafe, leading police to believe that a second assailant is on the loose.
Previously officials had not specified how many people were involved in the attack on the sidewalk bar on La Fontaine au Roi street.
Surveillance video of the shooting shows two black-clad gunmen with automatic weapons calmly firing on the bar, then returning slowly toward a waiting car, whose driver was manoeuvring behind them.
Three French officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorised to comment on the investigation, confirmed that an analysis of the series of attacksindicated that one additional person directly involved in the assault remains unaccounted for.
10.20am: Uniting in a symbol of defiance and respect, players and fans of the French and English football teams delivered a moving display of solidarity at Wembley Stadium at a friendly game staged four days after the deadly attacks in Paris.
A touching pre-game ceremony saw England and France supporters sing the French national anthem as one, before the squads came together around the centre circle to observe impeccably a minute’s silence in honour of the 129 people killed.
9.40am: The Russian Ministry of Defence posted video showing air force jets being loaded with cruise missiles and bombs, taking off and dropping the explosives in an unidentified location
According to Russian officials, the military planes carried out massive air strikes against Islamic State targets in Syria.
9.05am: French authorities are now hunting at least one additional attacker after surveillance video showed three men in a car used for an assault on Paris restaurants and bars.
“Three men were in the black Seat used to fire on the bar terraces and restaurants,” a judicial source told Reuters.
One man from the car, Salah Abdeslam is already being sought by police. His brother Brahim, who was also in the car, blew himself up at the scene. Police have yet to identify the third man they spotted in the video. “He is therefore being sought,” a second source close to the investigation said.
A justice official told Reuters earlier that there may be further suspects on the loose.
“We are in the process of determining how many there may have been. Nothing is ruled out.”
8.45am: Investigators have obtained a video that confirms there was a ninth attacker in Paris among the men that opened fire on bars and restaurants, sources close to the inquiry told AFP on Tuesday.
The video indicates there could be a second attacker on the run, along with Salah Abdeslam, unless the man pictured is one of two suspected accomplices being held in Belgium.
8.30am: Hannover police chief Volker Kluwe has been talking to German television, saying there had been had been “serious plans to cause an explosion”.
“We had concrete evidence that someone wanted to set off an explosive device in the stadium,” Hannover police chief Volker Kluwe told German TV.
Referring to another bomb threat about an hour beforehand that turned out to be a false alarm, Kluwe said, “After the first object turned out to be harmless, we got a tip that had to be taken seriously that an attack was being planned.
There was no confirmation of rumours that an explosive device was placed in an ambulance or another vehicle inside or outside the stadium.
8.20am: No explosives have been found in the Hannover football scare, says the German regional minister.
Germany’s top security official says the decision to cancel the soccer match between Germany and the Netherlands was made after authorities received mounting information during the course of the day about a possible attack.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel had been among the top Germany officials scheduled to attend.
8am: A mobile phone believed to have been used by one of the attackers in the Paris has been recovered, reports CNN.
The network reports the phone contained a message to the effect of “OK, we’re ready”.
7.50am: A second stadium in the northern German city of Hannover has been evacuated.
Concert-goers had been waiting for the band “Soehne Mannheims” to play.
Hannover’s chief of police says authorities received a warning about a possible bomb threat shortly before the start of a soccer friendly match between Germany and the Netherlands in the main Hannover stadium. The stadium was evacuated and the game was cancelled.
Police chief Volker Kluwe told German public broadcaster NDR that the alleged threat involved the “detonation of explosives in the stadium.” He says the “key warning reached us about 15 minutes before the gates opened.”
7.40am: Four days after getting caught up in synchronised attacks in Paris that killed at least 129 people, France’s soccer team started its friendly game against England amid tightened security at Wembley Stadium.
In a powerful message of solidarity and unity, England fans joined their French counterparts in singing France’s national anthem, “La Marseillaise,” before the game. The words of the anthem were put up, in French, on the big screens at either end of the stadium.
7.20am: French police have released a photograph of one of the suicide bombers who blew himself up outside the national stadium, appealing for any witnesses with information to come forward.
Investigators have already established that he had been finger-printed by authorities in Greece in October but his identity remains unclear. Near his body was a Syrian passport apparently belonging to a Syrian regime soldier killed several months ago.
[#Parisattacks] French police wants to identify this man. From abroad > alerte-attentat@interieur.gouv.fr pic.twitter.com/sBGxahc7Ka
— Police Nationale (@PNationale) November 17, 2015
7am: German police, acting on a “concrete threat’’ have evacuated fans from the Hannover football stadium Niedersachsenstadion and cancelled a friendly football game between Germany and the Netherlands.
The German interior minister Thomas De Maiziere told a press conference: “We received very concrete information on a serious security threat to the City of Hannover, I cannot go into more detail.”
The Mayor of Hannover told local press there had been a plan for an explosion in the city and the threat was very serious.
Just 90 minutes before the game was due to start — in front of the German chancellor Angela Merkel who had not yet arrived — police told the spectators at the 32,000 capacity ‘’to move away from the stadium, do not stand still’’.
Within minutes the nearby Hannover TUI-Arena hosting a music event was also cleared and the local trains had been stopped. Police were instructing the crowds to stay calm and walk away.
The football game had been billed as a solidarity match with France and to support the German team who was playing France at the Stade de France last Friday night when the suicide attacks occurred.
Local police said: “Please go home quickly without panic’’.
- With agencies, additional reporting Jacquelin Magnay
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