This Thursday’s ceremonies take place in a new memorial garden next to Paris City Hall.
The tenth anniversary of the terrorist attacks of November 13, 2015 in Paris is marked on Thursday, with tributes to the 130 fatal victims and survivors, still marked by the tension and trauma of the attacks.
“There are emotions and tension everywhere for us survivors,” Arthur Denouveaux, 39, the president of the Life for Paris association, told France-Presse, who was at the Bataclan concert hall, where 90 people died.
The 2015 terrorist attacks were committed by nine armed men and suicide bombers from the Islamic State group, who attacked the Stade de France, several cafes in Paris and the Bataclan, causing 130 deaths and more than 400 injuries.
Thursday’s ceremonies take place in a new memorial garden next to Paris City Hall, in the presence of the French President, Emmanuel Macron, Mayor Anne Hidalgo, survivors and families of the victims.
Emmanuel Macron will lay wreaths at the sites of the attacks before the main ceremony, the Eiffel Tower will be lit up in the colors of the French flag, and Parisians have been invited to light candles and leave flowers in Republic Square.
In a statement, the government indicated that “the nation will come together to honor the memory of the victims, express its support for the families and reaffirm France’s commitment to the fight against terrorism.”
The memorial garden was designed with input from family members and survivors, including Denouveaux, and contains the victims’ names engraved on monoliths. “We wanted a space that remembered the dead, but also symbolized life and serenity,” he said.
The November 2015 attacks were the deadliest in France since the Second World War.
The trial held between 2021 and 2022 sentenced the only surviving member of the terrorist group, Salah Abdeslam, to life in prison without the possibility of parole. Another 19 accomplices were also convicted.
