The people of Paris are banding together after explosions outside a Paris stadium and fatal shootings in the city centre Friday night.
Footage of soccer fans exited the stadium in the wake of the explosions shows not chaos or stampeding panic, but the sound of France’s national anthem, the Marseillaise.
“In an exit tunnel of the Stade de France, exit in the calm …. And the Marseillaise. #Proud,” Karl Olive writes in French in the Facebook post where he uploaded the video.
The Marseillaise was originally composed during the French Revolution as a marching song for when soldiers went to war, according to Encyclopaedia Britannica.
It has been a symbol of freedom and hope in the country ever since.
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In the video, people can be heard chanting the chorus, before erupting into cheers.
“To arms, to arms, ye brave!
The avenging sword unsheath,
March on, march on!
All hearts resolv’d
On victory or death!”
The explosions outside of the Stade de France happened as more than 40 people were killed and more than 100 taken hostage at locations in Paris’s 10th and 11th arrondisements.
A stadium announcer made an announcement over the loudspeaker after the match, telling fans to avoid certain exits “due to events outside,” without elaborating.
Many appeared hesitant to leave amid the uncertainty after France’s deadliest attacks in decades.
Since the attack, people have taken to Twitter using #PorteOuverte to offer and find shelter for those still on the streets of Paris Friday night.
https://twitter.com/the_audreyc/status/665289314016862208
With files from The Associated Press.
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