back. whata policy perspective, do we do to respond to these attacks -- domestically, international support. if the assailants and perpetrators can be identified, if this is an organization, what kind of policy response does the french government want to undertake and who will support them? york it is 7:00 in new which means it is 1:00 a.m. in paris. mark crumpton will give us a recap of everything that has happened and what has been changing in the last hour. mark: we would like to update our audience from around the world and our listeners in bloomberg radio. french police are now in control of the concert hall where gunmen killed several people and took scores more hostage in what was one stage of what appears to be a coordinated wave of violence in central paris. gunmen stormed a restaurant killing over a dozen people. we also received word at least

two or three suicide bombings took place outside the national soccer stadium where a match between france and germany was underway. the french president was in attendance. he was rushed from the stadium and taken to the interior ministry where he met with some of his senior security officials. he said he was closing the borders and was instituting a state of emergency. we are learning now dozens of people were killed during the hostage taking at the theater. there is no word on whether they were killed by the gunman were caught in their crossfire of a shootout between the gunman and french authorities who stormed the theater. we are learning more than 45 people were killed in the paris attacks. that is the death all we have right now. but as our guests have been telling us, that death toll is expected to go higher. the president of the united states addressed in situation and spoke from the briefing room

at the white house. this or obama saying the american feed -- mr. obama is saying the american people is with the french people and we will lend them any support necessary to find out who was behind these attacks and the deadliest wave of attack in modern french history. at least right now, the death toll is 45. the number is expected to go higher because we have received word that dozens of people were killed when police stormed the theater where at least 100 people were taken hostage. alix, cory, back to you. cory: thank you. alix is joining me right now. we have thomas sanderson on the phone, the director for strategic and international studies. yes plenty experience in that he has plenty of experience investigating -- he has plenty of experience investigating international terrorism. they are gathering as

much evidence as they can. reviewing security camera footage of the clubs, restaurants, the streets. that is already beginning to unfold. they will learn a lot by daybreak i'm sure. alix: what is the process for something like this? where does it start and how long does it go for? what is the first thing? thomas: that the police are doing? they are going to gather any video footage of what is going on. they will look at any of the people that were subject to high intensity ongoing surveillance because he certainly have some modee in such a targeting at this point. they will also look at people who may have made postings on facebook, twitter or otherwise suggesting they were going to be part of an attack or celebrating the attack to determine if they are still active units in the

vicinity. i guarantee you there are several people in there. cory: what do you mean? thomas: we know that france sent over -- the government sent over 1000 fighters to join isis. they arey likely hundreds within the vicinity of paris, dozens who are likely armed militants who are ready for action. belgium isso learned also installing border control. what is your interpretation of that? is that effective? thomas: i think it will be effective. it will make it harder to cross the border. as we know, following the charlie hebdo attacks, we had belgian police conducting raids on the homes and buildings going into those they had under

surveillance. they are concerned fighters could be moving back and forth of the border, either escaping into belgium are going from belgium into paris to conduct additional attacks. these are possibilities. we'll know what the plans are which makes it so difficult. cory: how has it changed -- how has the intelligence gathering change in the last few years as the terrorists have changed their methods of both communicating and attacking? thomas: the gathering has been made more difficult by the technology they can get off the shelf -- highly encrypted phones. also those using more rudimentary means given that they're concerned about french police surveillance. intelligence gathering has been difficult. they have had to add more people to it as more fighters have

syria from the battle in that has drawn more french competitors to the field -- combatants to the field. intelligence human becomes ever greater importance. that his sources within paris and france and other places relevant to the battle where you have to have people on the ground, establishing relationships, close to the fighters. it has been quite a challenge. france is one of the best equipped nations to deal with this. they have a long history of battle with militants, both left-wing and militant groups, islamic militant groups. they are extremely capable. even in the best of situations, you are going to have things slip through the holes and you are never going to get all the intelligence you need. also joining us now is former u.s. ambassador nicholas

burns. he joins us on the phone. whatyour perspective, international effort can we expect over the coming days? nicholas: the united states will have to pick up and help france. it is one of our oldest friends. as your other guest said, the french have experience with terrorism. obviously what we have learned since 9/11 is allied countries need to band together for intelligence sharing, judicial cooperation to arrest and prosecute these people, for economic cooperation to drive their financing and have the ability to take action against them, police and military action, if we can find where they are. the only way to beat terrorism is to band together in groups of like-minded nations. it is very good to see the very strong statement from president obama. i'm sure washington will go all out to help the french. cory: what are you trade to do

as an ambassador in a situation like this to get ready to a u.s. citizens on the ground? nicholas: maybe the comparative advantage the united states has is we have political influence and a lot of reach. i'm sure that what the state department and white house is hearing now, the ambassador of france, but also our departments in washington -- we are building coalition. we will reach out to like-minded countries -- belgium, the germans, the italians and to our arab friends because they have capacity and they want to end this threat of terrorism. we will try to build a big coalition to trade information and were together to identify this group and go after them. goes on in terms of trying to track down u.s. citizens now? what is the process in paris?

nicholas: you mean u.s. citizens who might have been victims? alix: how do we identify them? nicholas: one of the basic responsibilities of any embassy is to take care of american citizens when there is a horrible terrorist attack. the first thing we want to do is make sure american citizens are safe. it depends on the country. there are many, many thousands of americans living in paris. it is a very difficult task to ascertain if somebody has been a victim. our embassy will be in contact with civil authorities, police authorities to ascertain that. they will get first order of priority. mark: what happens now as far as the diplomatic core the united

states is concerned? what measures are being put into place to ensure the safety of our diplomatic core at embassies around the world? nicholas: our embassies have more or less been threatened since the age of terrorism began.in the early 1980's, we saw a rash of attacks of beirut. our embassies have been hardened. security is job number one for every american ambassador and his or her staff. we try very hard to not just fortify our buildings, but to they our diplomats that become unpredictable in their daily habits. of course, one of the jobs of a diplomat, american diplomat, is to go out and meet the people and worth with the people of that country. there are always risks.

we try to manage the risk. cory: sorry, we have caroline on skype now. she is in paris right now. tell me exactly what you are seeing. caroline: you can see just behind me there is hundreds of emergency units and firemne, people trying to take care of the injured. you can see special forces here. obviously, it is very hard for the emergency services to deal with the confusion here. you can see they are being taken out of the concert venue. sidee have been put on the next to me. you can see them here. i don't know if you can see. cory: the details are a little tough. can you give us a sense of what kind of injuries we are looking

at? caroline: it is like hundreds of people coming out onto the street just behind the concert venue being taken to the hospital. it is a little confusing at the moment because special forces are still here. obviously, the emergency units are telling us to leave the way for the injured to be taken care of. alix: you are near the theater hall -- wee concert have reports that attackers were killed. do you have a sense that things are safe there and that the perpetrators have been arrested or killed? caroline: we heard the gunshots when it was taking place. the president will make a statement in a few minutes. he will give us an update on exactly what took place. you can see behind me there are

some on the sidewalk here. used as behind me was an improvised hospital for the injured. we should hear more in the next few minutes about how this took place and the details of how money people have been kit -- how many people have been killed. alix: hundreds of people were not killed in the theater -- there were hundred of hostages. i just wanted to clarify. cory: seven attacks in seven different places. 11th,st two were in the is that the place where people are gathering at this kind of night? we may have lost her. caroline: i'm here. yes, it is a very busy place on friday night. this is where a lot of young people in paris come here during the evening.

it is very close to the charlie hebdo headquarters where the attacks took place back in january earlier this year. -- it is a place where a lot of people, on friday night -- come on friday night. alix: have you been talking to people on the street? caroline: people are in a state of panic. i was talking to a woman who was waiting for news from inside the concert hall. she could not reach -- she' probably at the emergency units trying to identify whether her friend made it out of the concert venue. people are in a state of shock and panic at the moment. --x: i do want to update us we are getting new numbers. 100 actuallyying were dead inside the concert

venue. not counting any that were injured or killed. around 100 dead in the attack on that paris concert hall. cory: caroline, i wonder if you are still with us. we are not sure if we lost her or or now. we wonder if there are enough and you lenses and keep -- ambulances to take care of these people. ambassador, this is getting more and more terrifying by the moment. it is a horrible thing to imagine -- 100 people dead in this place. what would you be doing as an ambassador right now to deal with this as it goes across a much wider area? nicholas: as we have discussed, we have had a lot of experience with terrorism as victims including the charlie hebdo attack. there is a lot of capacity in france to deal with this kind of

emergency. for the united states, our embassy and our president will be reaching out to ask the french what they need. do in a timeallies like this. alix: ambassador, we are getting word that president hollande will be heading to the paris theater which is the site of the shootings where near 100 are dead. what do you want to hear from him? what do you need to see? nicholas: i think president hollande went through the terrible o charlie hebdo attacks and the french felt reassured that he was in the streets, with people. this is characteristic of him. i think it is leadership on his part to try to calm the population and see the security operation and a show confidence

that the french could respond to this. cory: the prime minister and the president both heading there right now. howerms of coordination, important is it to be to help and out of the way and how to figure out how to do that? nicholas: what you do in a situation like this -- they are dealing with the immediacy of the crisis. just trying to figure out what is happening, caring for the wounded and honoring the dead. the french will be in touch with their friends to say here is our appreciation of the situation. here is what we think we need, the type of assistance we need. that will be done -- that kind of network is well-built, well constructed. they have a lot of history dealing with this and that is what the united states is preparing to do. alix: hang on with us. we do want to update all the headlines. we want to go to mark crumpton. mark: we would like to update

our audience from around the world and those of you listening on bloomberg radio -- some terrible numbers. alix and cory just mentioned them but it gives you pause. we are learning at least 100 people, 100 people were killed in the attack of a paris concert venue on friday evening. the venue was stormed by gunmen. the gunman took some of the people hostage. some were killed in the initial wave and afterwards. we are getting reports some hand grenades or some sort of explosive devices were thrown at some of the concertgoers. the police stormed the concert hall. they do have it now under control. the french wire service is saying seven locations did come under attack. it included a restaurant where over a dozen people were killed. it also included the national soccer stadium. at least two or three suicide bombings took place outside the

soccer stadium while a match was underway. that match was being attended by french president francois hollande. he spoke to the public afterward. he said he was closing the borders, ordering the borders closed and he was instituting a state of emergency. as cory mentioned a moment ago, he and the french prime minister are headed to the site of that hostagetaking at the theater where, again, we are hearing around 100 people were killed. president obama spoke to the nation and expressed his sympathy for the french people and said the united states would be lending assistance to those in france. as it has been mentioned, this number perhaps, the death toll, could go up exponentially. an untold number of people have been wounded in this wave of attacks that took place in central paris in the 10th and 11th districts.

this apparently was a coordinated attack, although as of yet, no one has claimed response ability for the violence -- responsibility for the violence. alix: joining us now is tara maller, a former cia military analyst. what do you make of the fact we have yet to have a group that is claimed response ability -- responsibility? tara: it is early but it is interesting. usually you see groups coming out and claiming. usually not immediately after. it is unusual. i suspect we will see a claim come out. it is slightly unusual but it is only been a few hours. cory: would we believe the first reports? how do these things get verified in terms of using intelligence to figure out the claims might have some veracity to them?

tara: usually intelligence officials have a pretty good sense based on where it is coming from or the group issuing it. you are right. it is not taken at face value. in many cases in iraq and syria, you see groups of false claims. usually it is possible the intelligence community can verify the accuracy of the claim. what sometimes happens is the group may claim responsibility and the individuals may not have necessarily been strategically linked and coordinating directly with the group. they may not have been part of the group or either in touch with somebody in the group or inspired by the group and the group overall to claim. it remains to be seen if these individuals are linked to a foreign terrorist organization. be they don't even have

any ties to anybody or actual coordinating with a group in syria to carry it out. there are a few different potential scenarios and we don't have any information at this point. alix: we are getting some headlines there are enhanced patrols of the u.s. capitol right now. there are no known threats however, but more patrols. in these me to the question of how france can -- it leads me to the question of how france can keep itself safe? tara: i think there is heightened security in new york and washington. i don't know the specifics. i think what you will see is the french police out in larger numbers. everybody being mobilized. you will see certain high-profile targets having additional barricades, additional individuals at the scene. you probably are seeing them go through intelligence and trying to track down these individuals

and their connections as quickly as possible, because if there is another imminent attack on the heels of this, it is possible these individuals could have ties to other cells in other areas and there could be valuable intelligence. they are probably trying to track down where they live because laptops, hard drives, those types of materials can be together and scrutinized for intelligence collection. cory: thank you for joining us. we really appreciate your help on what is going on right now. it is horrifying and confusing. on the phone right now is thomas sanderson still with us from the center of strategic studies. he is in charge of transnational threats. i'm reminded of right after september 11 where we later found out there were a lot of signal intelligence, a lot of chatter on otherwise quiet cell phones and people who were connected to terror suddenly

coming out of the shadows to communicate. i wonder if this is the very moment this might be happening across the world. thomas: it could be. agencies areence dealing with huge volumes of chatter. some will still have to be translated and gone through. that may reveal that this plan was underway and there was no prior knowledge on it. right now, they will be looking for current chatter that indicates the time for other individuals to conduct their attacks. the attack in place what are that a spokesman -- in-place order that his spokesman took out. there are agencies around the world listening in on people already under surveillance to see if they are also planning for attacks that were either planned or now that they see is opportunistic and a good time to isis is network around

the world. alix: schools will be shot in the paris read -- shut in the paris region tomorrow. they are mobilizing 600,000 soldiers. the government has decreed spectacle venues will be shut. this is in addition to france and belgium closing its borders. how do you do that? how do you monitor and closed borders? challenge is quite a but you obviously surge capacity at the borders. you go to places that are not guarded. becausea real challenge europe has had open borders for many years now. this is not something that they do frequently. this will take a little bit of getting used to over the next 24 hours.

france has excellent capacities, as do the belgians. they will make sure guys do not get out or the guys do not get in. it could be that militants are now thinking about going to paris in order to fortify other individuals who may have plans. cory: it is interesting to see the modern nature of this. we have seen people tweeting about things they have heard from people and texting from the hostage situation. we see facebook, saying i am safe in paris. it was also used in other horrible situations. i wonder in figuring out what is happening if those clues might be in social media places where they may not be in traditional places where signal intelligence is examined. us?you still with thomas: yes, can you tell me the

question in a nuthsshell. cory: facebook is enabling safety tools. we have seen a lot of communication happen on facebook and twitter by terrorist and maybe that is a place where signal intelligence is focused and other traditional places. thomas: they will be looking at conversations between mobile phones and whatnot. on facebook, they can simply read what people are writing on twitter and facebook. they will monitor that as best they can. the signal intelligence will be for guys that they had under surveillance or suspect to be problematic. there will be a tremendous amount of collection going on. dealing with that volume will be one of the challenges. alix: obviously, this is the

worst terrorist attack in france in modern history but we have seen many over the last few years. can you walk us forward a little bit of what we will expect to see out of france -- what kind of policy we would see, what kind of changes to counterterrorism? thomas: sure, there -- do not forget, the french are already and have been on many years on high alert so they have had a lot of stuff in place. this attack shows you that. even with that in place, with the professional outfit like france, things happen. they will look at recent arrivals that may have come into france, into europe. people that may have been part of a backup or surge to these fighters. they will look at very recent arrivals. again, some of those recent arrivals simply will not have been processed through normal channels.

they will have snuck over somehow either with migrant flows that have happened in the last few months or otherwise. they will be looking at folks that are recent arrivals. alix: thank you so much. we want to show you a map of the attacks. you can see at the stadium where there was an explosion. restaurant and concert hall where we are learning 100 hostages have been killed. there are seven attack locations in paris. we want to get a look at the headlines. we will give you a big picture and we will go to mark crumpton. mark: we would again like to update the audience from around the world and listeners joining us on bloomberg radio.

france is mobilizing 1500 soldiers in the wake of the deadliest wave of violence in modern french history. -- paris was the scene of a site of violence that took place at lan hunter told. the death toll-- concert hall. the death toll, 100 persons skilled. -- killed. over 12 people killed at a restaurant in paris. people were having dinner. it was at 10:00 p.m. the gunmen stormed the restaurant. they were explosions, believed to be suicide bombings that took outside the soccer stadium, where president hollande was taking in the match.