Paris attacks victims ask for greater help from French state

Record ID: 79342

  • Title: Paris attacks victims ask for greater help from French state
  • Date: 10th November 2016
  • Summary: PARIS, FRANCE (FILE - NOVEMBER 14, 2015) (REUTERS) (NIGHT SHOTS) VARIOUS OF POLICE DURING ASSAULT, EXPLOSIONS AND GUNSHOTS HEARD SURVIVORS WALKING OUTSIDE IN THERMAL BLANKETS WITH FIRE TRUCKS IN BACKGROUND SPECIAL POLICE FORCE (BRI) WEARING BLACK MASKS AND WALKING WITH GUNS VARIOUS OF INJURED BEING CARRIED OUT OF CONCERT HALL PARIS, FRANCE (FILE - NOVEMBER 14, 2015) (REUTERS) LE CARILLON RESTAURANT, THE SITE OF ONE OF THE SHOOTINGS FLOWERS AND CANDLES AT SCENE BULLET HOLE IN GLASS PARIS, FRANCE (FILE - NOVEMBER 16, 2015) (REUTERS) PEOPLE OBSERVING MINUTE'S SILENCE OUTSIDE THE CARILLON RESTAURANT
  • Embargoed: 25th November 2016 15:29
  • Keywords: November 13 Paris attacks victims France Bataclan
  • Location: PARIS, FRANCE
  • City: PARIS, FRANCE
  • Country: France
  • Topics: Conflicts/War/Peace,International/National Security
  • Reuters ID: LVA00257V4LDZ
  • Aspect Ratio: 16:9
  • Story Text: Days ahead of the November 13 anniversary of an attack that killed 130 people and injured hundreds, victims said French authorities must provide greater aid and review the way it responds to such emergencies.
    Georges Saline, who lost his daughter Lola in the Bataclan concert hall attack said there had been flaws in the way the state handled relatives in the immediate aftermath of the attack.
    "The measures we obtained remain lacking. There are, I don't like using cliches but it's something we say often, there are holes in the racket. There are things that should be done that are not," Saline said.
    In all, 130 people died a year ago when several groups of gunmen and suicide bombers attacked the perimeter of the Stade de France sports stadium, a string of Paris cafes and the Bataclan.
    Saline also highlighted the need for better communication with relatives in the aftermath of such an attack.
    "For a year we've been asking that decisive progress be made in order to accelerate the (future) identification of victims all the while making the information given more humane for families and loved-ones," Saline told reporters.
    Saline, who heads the association of victims' families 13Onze15, said authorities needed better organisation, if similar attacks were to happen in the future.
    "The police had enough information around 21:30 (20:30GMT) to know that there were armed men in Paris and in the 11th arrondissement of Paris who were shooting at civilians. The three killers at the Bataclan entered the Bataclan at 21:47 (20:47GMT), so ten or twelve minutes after. It seems to us that it would be wise to have an alert system which would alert the people responsible for security in places that bring in the public - theatres in particular, cinemas, transportation of course - when an event like this occurs," he said.
    France is to hold a commemoration ceremony in Paris on Sunday (November 13) and British musician Sting will give a concert on Saturday (November 12) to honour the victims at the Bataclan, which is reopening after a year of renovation.
    "I don't think it's worse to go to the Bataclan one year later to seek what those who went to the concert felt that day. And I don't think it's worse to go to the Bataclan than to go the morgue on the 15th, 16th, 17th of November. For me, it's also a way of remembering what happened before November 13, 2015 and to participate once again in the lives of the deceased," said Nadine Ribet-Reinhart, whose son died in the Bataclan.
    Relatives have asked people to mark the day by lighting candles at their windows on November 13.
    Just ahead of the Nov. 13 anniversary of the assault, victims and relatives of the dead still seek answers. And the only living person believed to be part of the hit-team, Salah Abdeslam, now behind bars, refuses to talk.
    A painstaking investigation led by an exceptionally large team of six judicial magistrates has inched forward in search of the "remote-controllers" - those who pulled the strings from abroad, at IS bases in Iraq and Syria or elsewhere.
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