FRANCE-SHOOTING/ELYSEE DEPARTURES World leaders depart Elysee Palace for march to honour attack victims
Record ID:
324600
FRANCE-SHOOTING/ELYSEE DEPARTURES World leaders depart Elysee Palace for march to honour attack victims
- Title: FRANCE-SHOOTING/ELYSEE DEPARTURES World leaders depart Elysee Palace for march to honour attack victims
- Date: 11th January 2015
- Summary: PARIS, FRANCE (JANUARY 11, 2015) (REUTERS) WIDE OF ELYSEE PALACE VARIOUS OF LEADERS DEPARTING PALACE/ WALKING THROUGH COURTYARD
- Embargoed: 26th January 2015 12:00
- Keywords:
- Location: France
- Country: France
- Topics: General
- Reuters ID: LVADE1D9IRSWVUEF2Y32YHT2ZL0K
- Story Text: French President Francois Hollande led world leaders in departing Elysee Palace for the start of a march on Sunday (January 11) to honour the victims of this week's Islamist militant attacks in Paris.
Hollande and leaders from Germany, Italy, Israel, Turkey, Britain and the Palestinian territories among others departed the palace by bus and moved off to the central Place de la Republique ahead of a sea of French and other flags.
Giant letters attached to a statue in the square spelt out the word Pourquoi?" (Why?) and small groups sang the "La Marseillaise" national anthem.
Some 2,200 police and soldiers patrolled Paris streets to protect marchers from would-be attackers, with police snipers on rooftops and plain-clothes detectives mingling with the crowd. City sewers were searched ahead of the vigil and underground train stations around the march route are due to be closed down.
The silent march - which may prove the largest seen in modern times through Paris - reflects shock over the worst militant Islamist assault on a European city in nine years. For France, it raised questions of free speech, religion and security, and beyond French frontiers it exposed the vulnerability of states to urban attacks.
Seventeen people, including journalists and police, were killed in three days of violence that began with a shooting attack on the satirical newspaper Charlie Hebdo on Wednesday (January 7) and ended on Friday (January 9) with a hostage-taking at a Jewish deli in which four hostages were killed.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel, British Prime Minister David Cameron and Italy Prime Minister Matteo Renzi were among 44 foreign leaders marching with Hollande. U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, Israel's Benjamin Netanyahu - who earlier encouraged French Jews to emigrate to Israel - and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas were also present.
The official estimate on attendance is due to be announced later. A 1995 protest against planned welfare cuts brought some 500,000-800,000 people onto the streets of the capital, while a 2002 rally against the far-right National Front's then leader Jean-Marie Le Pen after he got into the run-off of that year's presidential election drew 400,000-600,000.
Twelve people were killed in Wednesday's initial attack on Charlie Heed, a journal know for satirising religions and politicians. The attackers, two French-born brothers of Algerian origin, singled out the weekly for its publication of cartoons depicting and ridiculing the Prophet Mohammad.
All three gunmen were killed in what local commentators have called "France's 9/11", a reference to the September 2001 attacks on U.S. targets by al Qaeda. - Copyright Holder: REUTERS
- Copyright Notice: (c) Copyright Thomson Reuters 2015. Open For Restrictions - http://about.reuters.com/fulllegal.asp
- Usage Terms/Restrictions: None