Lying on stretchers and sitting in wheelchairs, the surviving victims of the Paris terror attacks joined thousands of mourners at a memorial service Friday morning to honour the people killed in the deadly attacks.
Nearly 2,000 people attended the memorial at the city’s Les Invalides monument including President François Hollande and relatives of those who died in the attacks, France 24 reported.
The names of all the victims and their ages were read out, and a minute’s silence held. The service comes exactly two weeks after gunmen and suicide bombers attacked several sites across Paris killing 130 people and injuring hundreds more.
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“The ordeal has scarred us all, but it will make us stronger. I have confidence in the generation to come. Generations before have also had their identity forged in the flower of youth,” Francois said, according to the Associated Press. “The attack of Nov. 13 will remain in the memory of today’s youth as a terrible initiation in the hardness of the world. But also as an invitation to combat it by creating a new commitment.”
The family of Nick Alexander, a British merchandising manager who was killed at the Bataclan concert hall, said they were “proud to stand in unity” with others affected by the attacks.
“This is just the beginning of a long road where we will have to get used to the absence of his physical presence around us – a physical presence that we loved so much, that made us laugh, that we loved being with, and always held us close wherever he was,” the family said in a statement issued through the U.K. Foreign and Commonwealth office.
Elsewhere in Paris, French flags were hung in windows and on buses in a display of patriotism not common in France.
Hollande had earlier asked citizens to hang the tricolour national flag outside their homes in memory of the victims.
WATCH: Parisians display French flag on balconies to pay respects to victims of Paris attacks
In response to the attacks France has stepped up air strikes on Islamic State targets in Syria and Iraq. Hollande has pushed for a more coordinated international effort to destroy ISIS and promised again Friday that “France will do everything to destroy the army of fanatics who committed these crimes.”
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