10 years after the Bataclan massacre, Paris is still scarred by that night of terror

PARIS (AP) — Anne-Laure, Djamila, Justine, Guillaume, Nick and so many others — sons, daughters, mothers and fathers slain by Islamic State group gunmen and suicide bombers in Paris were fondly remembered Thursday as France commemorated the night of terror a decade ago that scarred and reshaped the country.

With minutes of silence and somber readings of the 132 victims’ names, the French capital mourned the dead and innocence it lost on Nov. 13, 2015, but also proudly recalled how Parisians came together, looked after each other and slowly but surely rebounded in the wake of the three-hour series of coordinated assaults targeting the packed Bataclan concert hall, joyful cafés and the national stadium where France’s soccer team was playing.

The bloodshed was France’s deadliest in peacetime — a national trauma likened to 9/11. The night hardened France’s security reflexes while deepening a sense of solidarity that has endured a decade later. Many Parisians think in terms of “before” and “after,” and some still check for exits when they’re in crowded places.

“Ten years. The pain remains,” French President Emmanuel Macron posted as he led the day of memorials, laying wreaths at attack sites and recalling “the lives cut short, the wounded, the families and the loved ones.”

Defiance and sorrow

At the city’s Place de la République, Parisians gathered with candles, flowers and handwritten notes as they did in 2015, taking comfort in being together.

“It’s a wound that is open. For the last 10 years, we’ve been saying there was a before and an after, but what comes after?” said Paris resident Patrick Abukrat. “The threat is still there.”

Defiance went hand-in-hand with the sadness, as in 2015, when Parisians made a point of exercising their freedoms after the attacks, mustering the courage to drink again in cafés, walk the streets with their families and carry on.

At a rousing commemoration on Thursday evening, the frontman of Californian rock band Eagles of Death Metal that was playing in the Bataclan when it was attacked led a choir in singing “You’ll Never Walk Alone,” a show tune now best known as a soccer fans’ anthem.

“Walk on, with hope in your heart,” singer Jesse Hughes belted out.

Enduring pain

The daughter of the first person killed fought tears and described her “void that never closes.” Sophie Dias’ father, Manuel, was killed when the first bomber detonated outside the Stade de France where France was playing Germany. Speaking at the stadium gate where he was killed, she said his absence “weighs every morning and every evening.”

“My father loved life. He believed in freedom, in the simple joy of being together, of sharing precious moments with his family, and he instilled in us the values of the Republic. That’s what hatred sought to destroy. But that’s precisely what we carry with us today. Stronger than anything, despite the pain, despite the absence and this gaping hole. We remain standing,” she said.

Three bombers sought but failed to get inside the stadium. Security agent Salim Toorabally turned away one of them and, after they detonated their explosive vests outside, tended a wounded man.

“He had like these bolts (pieces of metal) lodged in his thigh,” Toorabally said in an interview with The Associated Press. ”There was blood. I didn’t have gloves on, and there were pieces of flesh in my hands.”

He still speaks to the man today.

Tributes trace the path of carnage

Macron and first lady Brigitte Macron — joined by Paris Mayor Anne Hidalgo — toured all the attack sites, talking to survivors and relatives of those killed, laying wreaths and standing in silence for the dead and hundreds more injured.

So numerous were the victims of the massacre at the Bataclan concert hall that it took four full minutes to read out all their names. The 92 victims there include two men who survived the three-hour siege but who later died by suicide. Another 39 people were killed that night by gunmen who sprayed cafés and restaurants with bullets.

“You never fully heal. You just learn to live differently,” said Arthur Dénouveaux, who escaped the Bataclan and leads the victims’ association Life for Paris.

Macron lauded police officers and others who saved lives and the French capital’s resilience.

“The terrorists faced people far more courageous than them,” he said. “Paris held on.”

Church bells and the Eiffel Tower pay tribute

The bells of Notre Dame Cathedral and other Paris churches rang out in remembrance and the Eiffel Tower was illuminated in the national colors — blue, white and red.

The commemorations culminated with the inauguration of a Nov. 13 memorial garden opposite City Hall, with granite blocks that rise to evoke the attack sites.

“The Republic isn’t dead. One for all. Vive la France,” Britpop star Jarvis Cocker, frontman of the band Pulp who has lived in Paris, told the crowd.

City workers, emergency services personnel and others read out the names of all 132 dead, taking them more than 9 minutes.

The attacks reshaped France’s political and emotional landscape, triggering sweeping counterterrorism powers and years of debate over security and liberties. A 2021–2022 trial ended with life imprisonment for Salah Abdeslam, the lone surviving assailant, and convictions for 19 others.

French authorities say the terror threat has evolved significantly since 2015, with anti-terror police and prosecutors now increasingly focusing on young homegrown extremists, including children, who are radicalizing online, often in isolation.

Authorities say they have foiled six alleged Islamic extremist attack plots so far in 2025, involving suspects aged 17 to 22. Three suspected Islamic extremist attacks this year killed two people and injured several others.

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Nicolas Garriga, Alex Turnbull, Jerome Pugmire, Sylvie Corbet, Catherine Gaschka in Paris contributed to this report.