France on edge five years after Paris terror attacks

Five years after a squad of jihadist killers carried out France’s deadliest peacetime atrocity, the country is again on its highest security alert following a spate of attacks blamed on Islamist terrorists.

The night of carnage on November 13, 2015, saw 130 people killed and 350 wounded when Islamist suicide bombers and gunmen attacked the Stade de France stadium, bars and restaurants in central Paris and the Bataclan concert hall.

The sheer horror of the attacks, which were claimed by extremists from the Islamic State group, left scars that have still not healed. Modern France’s attitude toward Islam remains an issue of burning controversy.

The fifth anniversary of the November 2015 strikes will come with France still reeling from three attacks in the last few weeks: a knife attack outside the former offices of the Charlie Hebdo weekly, the beheading of a teacher and a deadly stabbing spree at a Nice church.

— with agencies