France declares state of emergency after terrorist attacks kill at least 140

PARIS -- France declared a state of emergency and secured its borders Friday night after attackers unleashed a coordinated wave of explosions, gunfire and hostage-taking in Paris that left more than 140 people dead and generated scenes of horror and carnage.

Taken together, the attacks represented one of the worst terrorist strikes on Western soil since Sept. 11, 2001. The attackers carried out suicide bombings, hurled grenades and shot dozens of hostages in an hourslong siege.

World leaders rushed to condemn the attacks, with President Barack Obama decrying "an attack on all of humanity and the universal values that we share."

The massacres were quickly celebrated online by backers of the Islamic State and other extremist groups, but there was no immediate claim of responsibility. U.S. officials were trying to account for Americans known to be in Paris, a government source said. A U.S. official briefed by the Justice Department said no Americans had been reported killed in the attacks.

The Paris prosecutor's office said eight attackers were dead, seven of them in suicide bombings. Prosecutor's office spokeswoman Agnes Thibault-Lecuivre told The Associated Press that the eighth attacker was killed by security forces when they raided a concert hall where the assailants had taken hostages.

She said it's possible that there are terrorists still at large.

French President Francois Hollande went on national television last night to announce restrictions at French borders and the deployment of the army. The president's office said 1,500 French troops were deployed on the streets of Paris to back up police. "We know who these terrorists are," he said, without elaborating. "These terrorists want to make us afraid and seize us with fear. . . . This is a nation that defends itself."

Packed hall targeted

The killings traced an arc across the center of the city, targeting a packed concert hall, a soccer stadium, a restaurant and bars-- all lightly secured facilities where tourists and residents had, until the attacks, been enjoying Paris entertainment on a cool November evening.

The scene of the worst carnage was the Bataclan concert hall, where hundreds of people had gathered for a concert by an American heavy metal band, Eagles of Death Metal. As attacks reverberated elsewhere in the city, gunmen stormed the building.

Witnesses said three or four men clad in black used assault rifles to mow down audience members at the concert hall, shooting some as they dived to the floor seeking safety.

"There are survivors inside," a man named Benjamin Cazenoves posted on his Facebook account, saying he was in the hall before police closed in. "They are cutting down everyone. One by one."

Police find 118 dead

Police surrounded the building and, amid the sound of explosions and gunfire, moved in. The terrorists blew themselves up with suicide belts, according to Michel Cadot, the head of Paris police. Cadot said the gunmen had first sprayed cafes with bullets before entering the hall.

As police secured the hall, they found at least 118 people dead, according to Paris' deputy mayor, Patrick Klugman.

An official said all members of the California-based band were safe and had been accounted for.

Government personnel guided survivors of the attack, wrapped in gold-colored heat blankets, down the street to waiting buses. Several had blood spattered on their clothing.

One middle-aged woman with brown, curly hair, in a white sweater, called out from the group of survivors to a man on the other side of the police barrier. He rushed over, embraced her and the pair simply stood, locked in each others' arms, for several minutes.

In addition to the deaths at the concert hall, a police official said, 11 people were killed in a Paris bar in the 10th arrondissement, and other officials said at least three people died when bombs went off outside a soccer stadium where thousands of fans, including Hollande, were attending a match.

At the stadium in the north of Paris where the sound of the suicide bomb blasts was heard during a match between France and Germany, terrified fans gathered on the field, having been barred by authorities from leaving.

Across Paris, normal city life came to a halt. Subway lines were shut down, and authorities advised residents to stay indoors. People who were on the street in areas near the attacks fled in a panic.

The attacks brought fresh trauma to a country still reeling from three days of terror in January, when Islamist militants killed 12 people at the offices of the satirical publication Charlie Hebdo, left four hostages dead at a kosher supermarket and fatally shot a police officer.

With Tom Brune and AP