21/11/2015 Reporters

attack with weapons and explosives, but coming up it is Christian Fraser

with Reporters. Hello, and welcome to this

special edition of Reporters. I'm Christian Fraser,

here in the Place de la Republique Following the shocking events last

week in the French capital, we have a range of reports from

our global network of correspondents as the country responds to

the worst attacks on French soil Katya Adler reports on

the night Paris came under siege. TRANSLATION: We all lay down,

the whole room lay down. I was under other people

and they kept shooting. Fears of a Muslim backlash,

Gavin Hewitt investigates the impact People struggle to explain why young

men would come down here and just They are the worst attacks on

French soil since Last week's terror attacks ripped

through the heart of Paris when its guard was down, as

people enjoyed a Friday night out, President Hollande said the bombings

were a declaration of war by the so-called Islamic State and has

placed the city under a state of Katya Adler reports on the night

that Paris came under attack. Her report does contain

some distressing images. This is how a regular Friday night

in Paris at a football match, a rock concert and round the corner

at the local restaurant... It all started just after nine

in the evening. Chanting crowds here at the France

versus Germany friendly had no clue Then a second, and a third,

blowing themselves up The French President, watching

the game, was ushered away. Dazed, frightened fans lingered

at first, too scared to leave. In the space of a few hours,

scores of people were killed in central Paris in a series

of coordinated attacks. This became a city of panic,

as everyone wondered Suddenly, news spread that

revellers at a rock concert here in the popular Bataclan

Theatre had been taken hostage. Some concertgoers managed to

escape onto the streets. This mobile phone footage

shows their utter desperation. This girl tries to escape

the bloodshed inside The ordeal ended when French forces

stormed the building, but around 80 innocent

people had already been killed. TRANSLATION: We were piled up

on each other. We heard the shots, people

screaming, as though tortured. TRANSLATION: I saw two young men

no older than 25 with Kalashnikovs. There was one that kept

gesturing for us to get down. We all lay down,

the whole room lay down. I was under other people

and they kept shooting. Meanwhile, not far away,

associates of those gunmen continued the killing spree in a number

of Parisian restaurants. Murdered while eating

their evening meal. On a normal Friday night it is hard

to find a hipper, happier, more buzzing pocket

of Paris than these streets, filled The attackers did not

target glitzy Paris. With these shootings

and the first suicide bombings on French soil, they want to make

everyone feel afraid and exposed. The former owner of Bell Equipe

restaurant, where 18 people were Faced with an act of war,

the country needs to take An act of war

which has been committed by a terrorist organisation, IS,

a jihadist army against France. An act of war,

which has been planned, organised, prepared from the outside and with

accomplices from the inside, which France has declared a state

of emergency. Security is tight,

with thousands of extra troops in airports, along French borders

and across the country. Fear is everywhere in and

around France, with the investigation pointing to

links in Belgium and beyond. Iconic buildings the world over

sent a clear message of solidarity as France mourns

and prepares to bury its dead. So, what does this mean for the

future of France and its relations Community leaders here

in Paris have said they now fear The country is home to

around five million Muslims. Many of them live in the suburbs

of Paris. Gavin Hewitt has been speaking to

some of them and finding out the impact

of the attacks on French society. France has the largest Muslim

population in Europe. But in the past year, there have

been a series of attacks, like on the satirical magazine Charlie

Hebdo, carried out by extremists. Some of them grew up

in the vast estates on the anonymous Ten years ago,

I watched the angry suburbs rebel. It prompted new efforts

of integration, but always, like a new French law to ban

the niqab, a face veil. Back then I met 26-year-old Anisa,

outraged at a law The uncomfortable truth is that

there are, today, willing recruits for a more radical, violent Islamist

ideology and Muslims were reacting TRANSLATION: Muslims in France

are disgusted by this. Do you think we like

being pointed at? Everywhere we go,

people give us a bad look. These days, when we go for jobs,

they do not accept us. From conversations here, it is clear

that some young people do feel isolated from French secular society

and that some do have a sense of grievance about French foreign

policy, particularly in the Middle East, but people struggle to explain

why young men would come down here and just open fire

at people having a meal. In this restaurant, Safer, a Muslim,

helped save the lives of two TRANSLATION: After a spray of

bullets, I ran and took the girls who were

bleeding down into the basement. But why any of this took place,

I have no idea. Earlier this year,

President Hollande and Europe's leaders linked arms

in defiance against violence, but it has proved easy for extremists to

paint President Hollande's interventions in the Middle East

as part of a crusader campaign. 2,000 French Muslims are thought

to have joined the war in Syria. In France,

there are deep political divisions. The far-right led by Marine Le Pen

continues to poll strongly, and already, questions are being

asked as to whether any of the suspects travelled with

the recent groups of refugees. After the Charlie Hebdo killings,

France came together, hoping unity We end tonight with some words

from Antoine Leiris. He lost his wife at the

Bataclan Theatre. He has written an open letter to

his killers. He says he will never forget her

but he and his little boy On Friday night you stole the life

of an exceptional being, the love of my life, the mother of my son,

but you won't have my hatred. I don't know who you are and I don't

want to know - you are dead souls. If the god for which you kill

so blindly made us in his own image, every bullet

in the body of my wife will have Therefore I don't give you the gift

of hating you. To respond to hatred with anger

would be giving in to the same ignorance that made you

what you are. You want me to be afraid,

to view my fellow countrymen with mistrust, to sacrifice

my freedom for security. She was just as beautiful as when

she left on Friday night, just as beautiful as when I fell hopelessly

in love over 12 years ago. Of course I'm devastated with grief,

I will give you this small victory, I know she will join us every

day and that we will find each other in a paradise of free souls

to which you'll never have access. The moving words of Antoine Leiris,

who probably sums up the thoughts and feelings of many who lost loved

ones in last week's attacks. That is all for this week. From here

in the plaster Republic, goodbye for now. Place de la Republique.