RACHEL MARTIN, HOST:
This is WEEKEND EDITION from NPR News. I'm Rachel Martin. The Paris attacks began quickly.
ERIN ALLWEISS: We were sitting at the table, and all of a sudden there were screams. And they locked the doors.
MARTIN: It was shortly after 9 p.m. Friday evening. Erin Allweiss was at a cafe in the center of the city.
ALLWEISS: And we thought that they were going to push through the doors. And we heard gunshots that were clearly gunshots. And everyone went under the table, hiding. And afterwards, it was quiet.
MARTIN: Three teams of attackers had descended on half a dozen sites across Paris, including a concert venue in the 11th arrondissement. Paolo Bevilacqua was nearby.
PAOLO BEVILACQUA: People was running in the street and screaming and crying, you know? Actually, I didn't understand what happened, you know?
MARTIN: The concert hall was called the Bataclan. Eighty-nine people died there. At another site farther north, French President Francois Hollande was attending a soccer game between France and Germany. A blast echoed through the national stadium. He was quickly evacuated. Soon, Hollande was addressing the nation, placing blame on ISIS, also known as Daesh.
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PRESIDENT FRANCOIS HOLLANDE: (Through interpreter) Faced with war, the country has to take appropriate steps. It's an act of war committed by a terrorist army, Daesh, an Islamist army against France, against the values we uphold throughout the world, against who we are, a free country that speaks to the whole planet.
MARTIN: President Obama spoke here in the U.S.
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PRESIDENT BARACK OBAMA: Paris itself represents the timeless values of human progress. Those who think that they can terrorize the people of France or the values that they stand for are wrong.
MARTIN: One-hundred-twenty-nine victims were killed. More than 300 others wounded. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.