TORONTO – All it took was eight men for Paris to come to an abrupt halt Friday night.
Eight men, who reportedly opened fire on multiple cafes and restaurants, set off suicide bombs outside a soccer stadium and – the most horrific of all – massacred more than 100 people during a heavy metal concert at the Bataclan.
The Islamic State has claimed responsibility for the attacks online, saying carefully selected targets were attacked by militants armed with explosive belts and guns.
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French police have reportedly said all the men involved in the Paris terror attacks on Friday night were killed; seven of them by the explosive vests they were wearing. The other was shot by police.
But what do we know about these men?
The remains of one of the terrorists at the Bataclan were identified as a 29-year-old Ismael Mostefai, a Frenchman who was known to police.
Mostefai, who had a record of petty crime and had been flagged in 2010 for ties to Islamic radicalism. He was identified from fingerprints found on a finger amid the bloody carnage from a Paris concert hall, the Paris prosecutor said. A judicial official and lawmaker Jean-Pierre Gorges confirmed his identity.
Police detained his father, a brother and other relatives Saturday night, and they were still being questioned Sunday, the judicial official said.
Another attacker was identified by a Syrian passport found on his body outside the Stade de France.
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Officials in Greece said the man had entered in October through Leros, one of the islands that tens of thousands of people fleeing war and poverty in Syria and elsewhere have been using as a gateway to the European Union in recent months.
The same man entered Serbia from Macedonia on Oct. 7 and requested asylum in Serbia, according to Serbian police.
It was not clear if the passport was real or fake, or if it belonged to the suicide bomber. The chief of the European Union border agency Frontex has said trafficking in fake Syrian passports has increased as a flood of refugees has poured into Europe.
His identity has not yet been released to the public.
There’s no official word on the rest of the people involved.
There have also been multiple reports of arrests throughout Europe connected to the Paris attacks.
Belgium’s federal prosecutor’s office confirmed three people were arrested near the Belgian border after a rental car with Belgian license plates was seen near the Bataclan.
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Police also raided St. Jans Molenbeek neighbourhood in Brussels. Belgian Justice Minister Koen Geen told the VRT network that “there were arrests relating to the search of the vehicle and person who rented it.”
An arrest last week in Bavaria might also be connected to the recent massacre, according to Bavarian police.
They said a man from Montenegro was trying to get to Paris with an automatic rifle, hand grenades and one kilogram of TNT hidden in his car.
Officials at the Gatwick airport outside London say they are questioning a 41-year-old man from France after a firearm was discovered at the airport.
The North Terminal at Gatwick was evacuated as after suspicious actions by the man, who had discarded an item.
While this hasn’t been linked to the attacks in Paris, Detective Superintendent Nick May said that “given the events in Paris on Friday evening, there is heightened awareness around any such incident and it is best that we treat the matter in all seriousness.”
With files from The Associated Press
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