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Paris attacks: at least 100 killed during Bataclan hostage crisis, reports say

Antoine Antoniol/Getty Images
Zack Beauchamp
Zack Beauchamp is a senior correspondent at Vox, where he covers ideology and challenges to democracy, both at home and abroad. His book on democracy, The Reactionary Spirit, was published 0n July 16. You can purchase it here.

French police sources have said that at least 100 people were killed at the Bataclan theater in Paris, according to the Associated Press and the AFP. Earlier on Friday evening, gunmen took an unknown number of hostages at the theater as part of what appeared to be a series of coordinated attacks in the city. French police stormed the theater shortly after, killing two hostage takers, according to the stories.

If these reports are confirmed, then this would be in addition to the other 30-some deaths from attacks elsewhere in the city.

CNN's Jim Sciutto talked to one of the hostages after the rescue. He reports that "terrorists calmly executed hostages, reloaded, [and then] executed again in silence."

The hostages came to the Bataclan, a theater with a 1,500-person capacity, for a concert by the American band Eagles of Death Metal. The show was sold out, though some in the audience apparently escaped earlier in the standoff.

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