islam. it is a global jihad movementment and as mike was just saying. there are plenty of people who have, i believe,en viewed with this tot totalitarian program on those in france. it could have been them. it could have been imports. i don't know at this point. >> thank you for joining us. for those of you just joining us on cnbc top of the hour. there's been a series of terrorist attacks in paris. it's 6:00 p.m. new york time, midnight in the french capital. 35 people have been killed and a hundred hostages being held inside a concert hall. sue herera has more. >> indeed. i think it bears repeating what

french president hollande has said. he says there are many injured, dozens killed. he's mobilized all forces to neutralize the terrorists calling in the army. he has called an extraordinary cabinet meeting at midnight french time. he also says we know where the terrorists criminals are coming from. he did not elaborate on that yet. he says that we must show compassion and solidarity, unity and cool heads. he says terrorists want to scare us. france is ready to defend itself. we also know, kelly, as we have been telling you that one of these incidents took place just north of france at a stadium. initial reports had said that mcdonald's was the site of one of those explosions. we can now confirm that mcdonald's was not -- not -- the site of the attack.

mcdonald's said two of our restaurants are temporarily closed as local law enforcement officials have cordoned off the area. so now at this point, we do not know what the site of those explosions were. but we have it from mcdonald's that it was not at their restaurant. as you know, there was a soccer match going on between france and germany at that time. while these attacks were simultaneously taking place in various parts of france. paris specifically, obviously. we do not know if there are four or five incidents in paris. the reports are now at four. the soccer game still went on, because it was hard to tell exactly what was happening. so we're going to roll a piece of tape, take a listen. >> once again, we have seen an -- [ speaking a foreign language ] >> all right. we are looking for another sound

bite that i wanted to show you because what it indicated was the fact that just about two or three seconds into that piece of tape you heard a loud bang. but at the time, when the match was going on and they continued the match because they didn't know it was an explosion. they have cordoned off the stadium. people are not allowed to leave because it's considered an active site. they're in the stadium right now. we don't know when that i'll be allowed to leave. the french president did say he would like people to basically our equivalent of shelter in place. they have increased security at all public places and at all hotels. we have some statements from the secretary of state, john kerry, saying that he is working with french authorities right now to see whether or not there were any americans in that particular area. it is in paris -- it is a very popular area. a lot of nightclubs and a lot of restaurants. there are conflicting reports tuesday whether a lot of tourists do visit that area, but the secretary of state is saying at this point he is going to work with french authorities to make sure that the -- all the

americans that they know are in paris specifically are accounted for. so kelly, we are still working on the numbers, but the latest reports are at least 35 dead, maybe as many as 40. 100 hostages inside the concert hall. back to you. >> thank you so much. we have the piece of tape you referenced a moment ago as well. take a listen. [ speaking a foreign language ] >> we're giving you a sense of what was happening, everyone trying to figure out the situation just outside that stadium, one of the explosions took place. let's get to eamon javers in washington, having heard from president obama who called this an outrageous attempt to terrorize innocent civilians, this administration has had to address and choosing the language in how to describe and what to say about the attacks in

recent years. >> that's right, kelly. the president was careful not to stay who it was, that the united states suspects of the attack, if they suspect anybody at this point. but i want to bring you a bulletin that we are just getting now from the associated press. we are being told by the a.p. that the french president hollande say security operations are assaulting a site in paris after the attacks. assaulting a site would imply some kind of heavily armed response here. we don't know which site that is being involved in this situation as of right now. we have this bulletin from the associated press. as you know, all of these reports are somewhat chaotic and is a very fluid situation on the ground in france. but as you say, the president appearing in the white house briefing room just within the past half hour calling france one of the united states' oldest allies and saying that the french people had been with americans in previous terrorist attacks inside the united states and the united states will stand with france here. take a listen to the president just a little while ago.

>> once again, we have seen an outrageous attempt to terrorize innocent civilians. this is an attack not just on paris, it's an attack not just on the people of france. but this is an attack on all of humanity and the universal values that we share. we stand prepared and ready to provide whatever assistance that the government and the people of france need to respond. >> president obama also said that he has not called french president hollande in the wake of this attack. under the assumption this is a live incident and french president hollande needs to focus on the incident in realtime here and we have a translation now of some the remarks from president hollande said a few moments ago. we have mobilized the forces for neutralizations of the terrorists and to ensure that no other attacks could take place.

he said the state of emergency will be declared and the borders will be closed. so a dramatic move there from the president of france, kelly. >> eamon, thank you. eamon javers in washington. let's bring in sarah bucherak in paris. what can you tell us what you're witnessing at the moment? >> what i explained earlier, i didn't witness what happened. i just came home just like maybe minutes after the shooting took place. so i didn't see exactly what was going on and it's just a horrible thing, deja vu. you know the attacks happened not far from i live. i still have friends, i have no idea what's going on because they're at the bataclan. so, yeah, sorry -- >> sarah, born and raised in france? >> yes. i was born and raised in france. as you can tell, my name is

arabic. my son is muslim. and once again, i -- i'm speechless because i just have no idea what's going on. like they are talking now about 60 people dead. maybe even more. >> right. >> as i said, i have friends, i didn't hear from them. so i don't know. >> sarah, you said you're born and raised in france. and you're of arabic descent. one said this is what happens when france throws open the borders, doesn't reckon with the islamist point of view. that's going to come not just from him, but from across europe and possibly across the world right now. >> well, once again, it feels like we'll be stigmatized. i'm not -- my family, i'm not like -- my faith is not muslim. i am french. and they're targeted i think as -- the french muslim

community because i don't know. my family doesn't identify to this. to these people. so it's just once again the s e same -- i think muslims are the same targets now. we are the targets as well as anybody from france. they didn't target muslims, but they target french people. >> right. there's of course -- in general, a lot of ignorance about what's arab obviously versus what's muslim. the reason i bring it up, this will have political implications. i wonder what the experience of being and living in paris is like for you. and just as somebody who in general in this city who has seen such awful attacks. you mentioned you were near what happened in january, and the thwarted train attack as well. what's going through your mind as well? >> i was there after the charlieing he bow attacks.

i never -- i'm sorry. i'm sorry. i just -- i'm having a call from someone. >> please take it. >> i'm ringing -- >> sarah, please take it. thank you for joining us. >> so tough. let's bring in former fbi chief of counterterrorism, steve pomeranz in the meantime. steve, again, the situation as we just heard from super happens has french authorities now trying to move in on the hostage situation. we'll follow that as we get word in. just what do you make of what's happened thus far? >> well, it's very -- obviously a very fluid, very complex, very serious situation. let me -- i listened to mike. i would echo almost everything he said. the french are very good at this. i have worked with them in the past. they're good at this. they'll take charge of the situation.

they'll resolve it and i suspect they'll be successful in whatever investigation they pursue to find out who did it. i have to also say, you know, again, from my perspective, we talk about intelligence to prevent these kind of things. obviously in this case that didn't happen. the french have prevented attacks as have we and others in the intelligence services. you can't prevent 100% of them. i'm not being critical but there are a lot of people who have unfortunately lost their lives and will be seriously injured and people who will never recover physically or psychologically. by the way, you just mentioned that you thought that the -- i heard the same thing about a violent assault. i did not automatically assume that's the hostage rescue. there may be some leads already. think may have an idea of who's responsible for this and they may be affecting arrests. i don't know that. almost everything we do now is

speculative. i'm sure we'll find out as we always do that some percentage of this will turn out to be earlier reporting will not be accurate. >> yes. >> we have to go back and we have to go back and readjust based on, you know, the subsequent events. very, very difficult. it's the worst possible scenario. but you have to deal with it in counterterrorism. not -- not the worst possible, but not unparalleled. they become very good over the years. if you think back, the coordinated simultaneous attacks have sort of become the hallmark of low tech simultaneous attacks, again, we're dealing with guns and bombs and hand grenades possibly. these are not real high-tech kind of attacks but they're able to cause a lot of deaths and a lot of damage. they're able to coordinate and do a number of them simultaneously.

kind of become the hallmark of some of the organizations. >> well, steve, if you and others are saying the french are good at this, they're not unprepared, this is a reality of a threat they have lived with for a long time period of time, but they have to essentially get used to the -- that people have to get used to the idea that this is a long term ongoing situation where you basically have to kind of be reactive and tactical about it? >> yeah, that's well put. that's unfortunately the reality. that's nobody who i know who can and should prognosticate how quickly we'll deal with this. this is a ideologically motivated movement with a life of its own, with any number of fanatical adherents. it is just going -- these kind of things are going to happen. you know, once again, i listen to frank gaffney and, you know, we don't know yet whether this -- whether this was caused by indigenous if you will. people who are either born in france or immigranted to france

a long time or possibly more like 9/11. people who came to the country recently for the specific purpose of carrying out these attacks. we don't know that yet. and as we learn, and we can -- you know, take away the lessons from that and make whatever adjustments. but to believe that we'll be able in the short term to prevent these kind of things from ever happening is just not realistic. >> by the way, steve, i'll be interested in your reflections on france, closing the borders, instituting a curfew. these are tremendous events. >> yes, they're significant events, they're logical and predictable. they're what you have to do. you can't -- you know, to say that -- to say that these things are not 100% preventable is not the same as saying we can't do reasonable and logical things to prevent as many of them as we can. and until they know more about

what's happened and who these perpetrators are, closing your borders, institutiining curfews stepping up your surveillance are logical things to do. i think we all agree that the first responsibility of government, certainly the law enforcement and security services are to protect our population. these are things you have to do to protect your population. >> steve, appreciate it. steve pomeranz. we'll bring in cnbc chief international correspondent michelle caruso-cabrera now. >> when the "charlie hebdo" happened, everyone called this france's 9/11. already there are more dead tonight compared to that attack and the coordinated attacks across the city really reflect a level of organization that's even bigger. and to talk to -- to echo your

point about closing the borders, your previous guest from the fbi said it was a logical thing to do, but it is an extraordinary thing to do in modern day europe with the creation of the european union passport. there are no border controls anymore. so it is going to be a logistical challenge that's unprecedented compared to if something occurred 30 or 40 years ago where countries were used to neighboring their borders. this is going to be incredibly difficult and really speaks to the caution and the fear that the president of france has tonight. >> a good point, michelle. especially since it's open ended. >> exactly. we don't know when it will end. if he's closing the borders what does that mean about air travel, et cetera, when we have the september 11th attacks that occurred with airplanes. clearly they shut down the air space for some time. this didn't involve airplanes but how far are they going to go in order to control the movement of the population before they get this determined? >> michelle, stay there.

we'll get more from sue herera on the latest now. >> hi, kelly. specifically from richard engel of nbc news who was talking to some counterterrorism sources a source in particular who says this attack bears all the hallmarks of al qaeda. the counterterrorism source says that this is a highly coordinated attacks, they are not ruling out isis. but they are looking more at al qaeda. also, according to dow jones authorities in new york have intensified security in response to the paris attacks. they are beefing up police presence at sensitive sites and germany's angela merkel is deeply distressed by the news and pictures from paris, her thoughts with the victims. germany's government has expressed to the german people's sympathy to the french government and president hollande. we do have pictures of the

french president at the emergency meeting that he said he was going to convene just a short while ago. it's called an extraordinary meeting of the elysee. and that follows the speech to the population of france and indeed to the world. there's the picture as he confers with the interior minister, the man sitting next to him with his head down a bit. he said he'll close the borders. he's declared a state of emergency. he says we must show compassion and solidarity and there's no reason to be scared but france is ready to defend itself. he's mobilized the army to neutralize the terrorists and he's called that emergency cabinet meeting which is under way, as we speak. we have not seen an update on fatalities and casualties at this point. so right now, we're going with at least 35, perhaps as much as 40. there are other reports out

there of more deaths, but we have not been able independently to confirm those. and the hostage number stays at 100 at that theater in the middle of paris. back to you, kelly. >> all right, sue, thank you very much for now. let's bring michelle caruso-cabrera back into the conversation. it's difficult to talk about al qaeda without speculating at this point. with that said, we know that isis has been the prominent group. we know that al qaeda broke ties with them not long ago. you know, there's now going to be reflection on i guess what exactly this -- whoever is behind it is meant to symbolize. >> yeah, yes, certainly, kelly. and it's going to lead to a lot of other implications i think in europe and in france at this moment, especially as we talk about the migration crisis that is going on as a result of the conflict. partially involving isis going on within syria. and there's been a debate about what to do with those migrants

who are so desperate to escape from syria at this point. remember that europe has already taken in a large group of muslim immigrants through the years and there's a large disaffected population of muslims in england, in london in particular. and in paris as well. and so we don't know who did this, but already you can be sure that there are people in france, in other parts of europe, questioning how welcoming should we be to these migrants who are coming from the middle east at this point. are they coming because they need to be here, or are they coming because they want to cause terrorist attacks? those kind of questions will be raised right now as a result of this. even though we have we of course are only -- we of course are only speculating, we didn't know who did this. but people will jump to conclusions in the midst of this crisis. >> thank you. i'm bringing in tyler mathisen as well. tyler, trying to figure out

what's happening, especially with this hostage situation. and whether or not people in paris, they're under a curfew tonight. the borders have been closed. it happens during the evening hours or when they wake up in morning. >> i thought michelle made an interesting point with respect to the closing of the borders what does it mean, how will it impede not only sort of personal travel, but commerce within the eurozone, within and moving in and out of france. travel within and moving in and out of france and what will the chilling effect be beyond france's borders in terms of people's willingness to travel, move in and out of that country or other countries and i was speaking within the last few moments of john killdoff who follows the oil market and he said that the asset that went down so much this week, oil, so

often intensely affected by geopolitical events or terror events, we'll see some effect here if in fact travel declaine and economic activity is chilled by this kind of terrorizing event. >> that's right. sue herera has more from the news desk at this point. >> this is according to the associated press, kelly. french police tell the associated press and confirm there were two suicide attacks. one bombing near the paris stadium. we do not have clarity on where the suicide attacks occurred. there are conflicting reports on that, but we according to french police can say that there were two suicide attacks. one bombing near the paris stadium. that's the latest that we have. police are tweeting according to the paris police. five transport and metro lines have been closed and they are also saying that shots are being

heard live on television near the concert hall in paris. that is according to reuters. so obviously, things are changing rapidly in this particular story. but a.p. is saying two suicide attacks, one bombing near the stadium. and according to reuters shots are being heard live on french television near the bataclan concert hall in paris. kelly? >> sue, thank you. of course we'll be going back to you as we get more clarity on what's happening at this moment. viewers will know simon cooper who was inside that stadium. it was a france/germany soccer match. the play did continue for a time. french president francois hollande was there and then the scale of what happened became apparent. the game continued for a little while to the finish. people were gathering in the stadium trying to get more information. authorities didn't want people necessarily leaving. getting out on the streets. and that continues with the curfew that's been imposed

tonight and even more drastic step of the french border being closed. let's bring in jason from paris who is two blocks from this shooting. jason, not at the stadium, but as i understand it, on the right bank when it happened? >> yes. so we were having dinner at a restaurant in the area where there was a shooting and we believe the hostage situation a block from us. we couldn't hear the gunshots from the restaurant we were in, but as we were walking from the restaurant back home for the evening, we began seeing police moving very quickly, setting up barricades. and ushering people off the street. speaking french but not being completely fluent, we began so see people running to doors and to restaurants to get inside and

we tried to quickly make our way back to our home where we're staying for our trip here. and had to divert around the hostage situation that was taking place at -- the rue public. >> and what french are supposed to communicate what the citizen should do now. what do you know about what to do and where to go now? >> we have been told to stay inside. there's a curfew for the night. no one is to go out or to do anything. our understanding is that the border has been closed. we have our -- our conference ends on saturday and we have a flight back to the u.s. to san francisco on sunday. and at this point, we're just hoping that everything is able to be cleared up by then.

>> appreciate you joining us. >> certainly. french media is also reporting that this might be connected to french involvement in syria. there had been apparently a high security alert. i'm not sure if that's being reported there yet. >> thank you. we are trying to follow the latest intelligence. somebody there who is on the ground by one of those restaurants, where the shootings took place on the right bank. let's bring in scott stewart, vice president of tactical analysis, scott. what's your analysis here? >> hi, kelly. well so far what we're looking at, focusing on the how. everything locks like it's been fairly simple attacks, obviously we have multiple attackers. but there's really nothing overly sophisticated so far. it's within the capabilities of any realm -- any number of

entities. this could be an organized group, you know, like the islamic state or al qaeda or it could be grass roots supporters of either organization or perhaps both. like we saw, you know, in january in paris. where we had al qaeda in the arabian peninsula attackers at "charlie hebdo" and then we had the islamic state supporter at the kosher deli. we don't know but at this point it doesn't appear to be overly sophisticated. it's well within the capabilities of any of those actors. >> overly sophisticated it may not be, but well coordinated it surely is. so that's pretty sophisticated. >> well, it's coordinated but it doesn't take a lot of sophistication if you have the contacts through social media and if you're able to have two or three cells execute something at the same time. so it's the trade craft that's used isn't necessarily that sophisticated. but you're right. there's coordination. but you can do that fairly simply through social media.

>> is there anything to be drawn from the fact that there was apparently this hostage taking situation? in other words is that something that you would have expected to have come along with some kind of negotiations, specific demands or is that another way of causing harm to people? >> well, that's obviously where you draw a lot of attention. you know, look, let's look back to the past hostage situation, whether it was the moscow theater, other places where we have seen jihadists take hostages. it's a good way to get attention for your cause. obviously, to draw the attention of the world's media. >> scott, you know, looking at reports of what may or may not be happening inside that building with the hostages, i just don't know what you do in this situation. i don't know how you try to get people out when you have -- what we know are suicide attacks involved in a couple of the other instances and people have nothing to lose and in fact may be wanting to give their lives.

>> well, exactly. that's what makes it so difficult. you don't nope if -- you don't know if they're waiting to pull something off and start killing people, you know, in front of the cameras or what their end game is. you know, we have seen past cases with some jihadi groups where they held people in exchange for people that are in jail and that could also be, you know, part of the plan here. and then we had some plots in the united states where we had the group that was responsible for the first world trade center bombing and then the new york bomb plot. they had talked about taking people like henry kissinger hostage to explain them for a jihadi, who is still in at aceh still. we don't know what the plan was obviously but i'm sure that there's some channel of communication being opened with the authorities at this point. >> scott stewart, thank you for joining us. >> thank you. >> we are following the

situation in paris as you can see there. tyler just more sickening with every passing moment. >> it truly is. and very disturbing i thought what scott stewart just said about the use of social media as a means of coordinating these attacks because clearly, they may have been crude in the trade craft is the word he used, but they certainly were not crude in terms of the coordination that it took to cause them to happen at roughly the same time in three at least very different parts of paris tonight. and it shows a vulnerability that law enforcement has i suppose you would say in monitoring terror groups who are -- who are extremely expert in their own way at using social media, kelly. >> and let's get to sue herera

now who has the latest details. of course the hostage situation, the death toll and even just clarity on how many different incidents we're talking about this evening. >> absolutely. it appears at this point, kelly, a number of things are happening around the theater. the bataclan theater where those hostages are being held. we have a witness report to reuters that five explosions were heard at the music hall. that is where those hostages are being held. and it came after president hollande said that a security assault -- a police assault was under way. we have witnesses and police reports of shots being fired around the theater. we assume it's around the theater. we have no confirmation that there has been shooting inside the theater since those hostages were taken. there are conflicting reports on that. all schools and universities in paris will be closed on saturday according to school authorities. they have shut down the metro lines in paris.

five transport and metro lines have been shut down. we are getting word of explosions heard near the concert hall in paris and more shots fired. that is being seen on television apparently right now. so it appears as though the most active site if you will is the bataclan theater in paris. richard engel is now saying a second u.s. counterterrorism source tells him that this attack bears the hallmarks of al qaeda. they haven't ruled out isis. but this is the second source on richard's reporting of earlier. they haven't ruled out isis, but they seem to be focusing mostly on al qaeda. >> sue, thank you very much. we'll let kelly evans take a break since she has been on television for 3 1/2 hours now, so she can catch her breath. let's bring in former s.w.a.t.

team member who covered the waco siege. let's talk a little bit about what could be going on at that bataclan concert hall or theater. reports of five explosions. these could be explosions, could they not, used by the france security forces to stun or disable -- create confusion so that they can go in and rescue people. is that a fair supposition perhaps? >> yeah. not knowing the timing of it. usually an assault would be preceded by those type of explosions. so if the reports we're receiving now are that the hostages are still being held and the explosions were 30 or 60 minutes ago, i don't know. i'm not sure how that would line up. >> how would france's security apparatus have prepared for event like this?

what is the kind of practice that goes into this -- into this -- this kind of rescue situation if that indeed is what we're dealing with and we have reports that there are hostages inside that venue. >> well, law enforcement all over the world studies and goes to school on things that have happened historically. so there has been significant large group barricaded situations like that in russia. there was a smaller hostage situation in australia. you know, recently. we have had theater issues here in colorado, not necessarily barricade, but, you know, a large group of people where the bad guys have the advantage is a very, very dynamic -- although it's static, but it's dynamic in the sense that it's extremely dangerous for the assaulters. dangerous for the victims, obviously. and the assaulters really want the try to regain that advantage that they have lost and that's

the big goal to try to figure out how that happens. it's a tough spot. >> our prior guest said that this was not by appearances a particularly his words sophisticated attack. but it seems to me that the coordination of it was anything but unsophisticated. how would you expect that the communication coordination took place here, kevin? >> well, i mean, all that will come out eventually. i think in an open society and i know that the french in paris pride themselves on that and they pride themselves on living free lives. coordination, you know, whether it's within five minutes, whether it's within a minute. whether it's within an hour, you know, they have to rely on some luck with traffic and their prior preparation. but we know how motivated these different groups are and as we saw in mumbai a guy took a whole boat and, you know, walked in

and did a tremendous amount of damage with him and just a couple of cohorts. you know, within days. and, you know, i don't know. these guys are motivated and it makes it difficult. >> kevin, would you stick around with us for a moment while we break away and go to eamon javers in washington. actually, we'll go to seeman mody first. >> the dow jones is now reporting that the french police have launched an assault on the concert hall where hostages are being held. we understand there are reports about 100 people are being held hostage in the city's bataclan theater and people had been killed there as well. there was a concert taking place there. keep in mind, the club is less than a few hundred yards away from the former offices of "charlie hebdo." tyler? >> all right, seema, thank you.

eamon, bring us up to date from washington. >> that's right. u.s. officials have been saying tonight they don't detect any particular threat to the united states in relation to this incident, but now we're getting some reporting here from capitol hill, nbc's capitol hill producer frank thorpe putting out some information from the capital police, set up to guard the u.s. capitol building. the u.s. capitol police said they're monitoring events in paris and getting realtime intelligence updates. enhanced patrols may be observed, conducted out of an abundance of caution. officials here not saying there's any particular threat, but as you can imagine they are on high alert. they're monitoring the situation and we may be seeing enhanced patrols here in washington and in response to events in paris. >> thank you very much. let's go back to kevin and get your instant reaction to what seema and eamon just said. specifically, when there is an assault of this sort in a hostage situation, do things play out quickly or what?

what might we be expecting here? >> well, certainly they play out instantly at the scene. it's only logical that the entire world then needs to be on alert and to do anything that typically when the fbi hears ago things like this, and every organization around the world, they'll try to get ahead of other things that are planned that maybe aren't coordinated exactly with that. so they'll be -- there will be lots of work going on not only in france, but all over the world, tonight, over the weekend to try to uncover anything that might still be hatched. >> one would suspect that the fbi, the homeland security department is a very, very busy place tonight and that law enforcement agencies around the country and indeed around the world are working double time. let's bring -- thank you very much, kevin. let's bring back jason from paris who was two blocks from

the shooting when it happened. jason, thank you for rejoining us. you talked about what you heard. can you describe what if anything you saw? >> we saw the local police moving quickly to set up what looked like perimeter. we had seen cars coming by every few minutes in order -- either getting into position or just patrolling. police were ushering people off to the street, telling them to take cover. and to do their best to get out of harm's way. >> and where are you now, back in your dwelling, your apartment or hotel, where you're staying? >> i'm -- i'm safe in the home where we're staying. and we're at five -- we're a

block and a half away from bataclan. >> have you ever been to that venue? you know it? it's obviously a well known neighborhood area haunt. >> we walked past it earlier today on our way to dinner and had to find a different route home because of the barricades that were -- >> were you close enough to hear the explosions that have been reported just within the recent few minutes? >> it's hard -- it's hard to hear what's happening down there with all of the sirens that are making so much noise. so we haven't heard the explosion if there were any. >> okay, jason, thank you. let's bring back in our chief international correspond end michelle caruso-cabrera for some perspective on this. we want to remind you that you're watching french television. this is a live feed. and i'm not sure whether that's

the feed from paris, from where the first explosions were. and the first incidents were or whether it's near the theater. we'll try to get some clarity for you on that. michelle? >> yeah, i would just weigh in on one of the measures taken by the president tonight is to close the borders of france which is an extraordinary thing to do in modern day europe because of open borders. the introduction of the e.u. passports people have been able to move freely across the borders. at a time when there were distinct borders within the continent there, there were probably border checks, et cetera, that we're familiar with from decades ago. but that's not the case now. that's an extraordinary logistical thing to be done at the point and runs counter to the spirit of what the european union is all about. we don't know if it means

planes, trains or people should not leave as well as prevent people from coming in. i think we'll see as we saw in the wake of the "charlie hebdo" attack back in january, there was a ground well of support for the president, francois hollande of france. but there was also criticism. he's incredibly hawkish. we may see that again. remember back when there was the chemical attacks in syria and there was attack that the united states and president obama talked about bombing syria, francois hollande was ready to go. he was the first one to step up and say, we're going to help do that. and he's also been active in just -- and just began air strikes in syria back in september. also fighting isis. so there are going to be some in france who criticize him and say was this brought on because of his activism at this point. clearly, we don't know what the full scale of what happened tonight, but there's certainly

issues to be talked about over the coming days. >> you raise some interesting logistical questions which i suspect we don't have the answers to, and that is what happens to aircraft that have taken off in recent hours and are on the way into paris? a lot of planes leave at this time head that would way and what about trains or flights that want to leave? we don't know anything about whether the -- as you pointed out, after 9/11 the u.s. air space was closed and american flights were diverted to airports and the air space was shut down for a matter of days. >> right. that was a very intuitive and logical thing to do because the september 11th attacks in the united states were conducted with airplanes. so less applicable here, but raises the question. i would assume, tyler, at some point there's some kind of announcement that the air space is closed and we haven't heard that yet. the train that runs from --

underground, london to paris all the time, is it running at this point? and what are they going to do at this point with people on the trains? >> all right. michelle, thanks very much. meantime, let's go to eamon javers and check in from washington. >> we have a report from the secretary of defense from the pentagon saying that secretary of defense ash carter was briefed late this afternoon on the attack in paris. he's closely monitoring the situation. at this point in time, the pentagon is saying they're not aware of any dod department of defense personnel involved in the tragedy. our thoughts and prayers are with the french people at this difficult moment. that's the statement from press secretary peter cook. more information now on background here from a department of homeland security official. this efficieofficial is saying department is monitoring the situation, at this time there's no specific or credible threat to the united states. but dhs will not hesitate to adjust our security posture as appropriate to protect the american people. dhs routinely shares information with our state, local, federal

and international law enforcement intelligence and homeland security partners and continuously evaluates the level of protection we provide at all federal facilities. as of right now, tyler, u.s. officials here are saying no credible or known threat inside the united states as a result of what's going on in paris. and that situation, very much unfolding in realtime. you can watch this play out on social media as well as on live television as we have been doing all through the evening here. one of the things that strikes me is the degree to which -- you talked about coordinating in realtime among these alleged terrorists. the degree they can coordinate using social media and monitoring developments as they are taking part in the attack. monitoring how it's being covered and reacted to on social media. a very different threat landscape than we have seen in prior years when terrorists did not have access to that kind of realtime information about what's going on in the world. as it was happening. >> eamon, i know you said that's

no credible threat. as we watch it looks like more victims being transported into french ambulances. we should note that according to the dow jones, in new york, there's intensified security and new york city is increasing the police presence at sensitive sites. >> let's bring in stefan degrees a freelance paris correspondent for bbc and rtl netherlands. thank you for joining us on the phone. what is happening where you are, what are you seeing, what are you hearing? >> well, in the area where i am which is approximately one to two miles from the area that the -- well, it's closed now. usually friday night is a very, very busy night in paris. but the deputy mayor of paris has advised to stay inside. as we speak right now, the

special teams of the police are raiding the building -- the concert hall where the hostages are being held. and where also the five or six suspects are probably inside. so this is going on right now and an assault on the concert hall in the heart of paris after the very bloody attacks earlier this evening. >> you said five or six suspects or perpetrators in the concert hall. i don't know that we had seen that information. where did you get it? >> these are actually eyewitnesses who talked to french media. five or six men started shooting earlier tonight. they were unmasked but heavily armed with machine guns, kalashnikovs and grenades and there were some witnesses inside the bataclan, the concert hall.

so these are just witness reports. these numbers have not been confirmed by the paris police. but these are just witnesses. >> we have heard varying numbers about the number of hostages or people in that concert hall. can you fill us in? do you have any additional information on that? >> no. there are conflicting reports. the concert hall can hold 1,500 people. but at the moment of the -- when the terrorists arrived there were allegedly about 100 or 200 people inside. many of them succeeded in escaping the building and the last reports we have is that there are still 50 people inside. but this has not yet been confirmed by the police. the only thing that's been confirmed by the paris police, there are now 39 people dead tonight in paris, 16 more people are seriously injured. and they fear for their lives. >> thank you very much. stefan de vries.

meantime, let's bring in wnbc's reporter, jonathan dietz. i don't know of anyone who is more plugged in than you to new york law enforcement and the people who provide security in this city and elsewhere. what are they telling you this evening? >> right now, they're telling us they're closely monitoring everything that's taking place overseas. top fbi and nypd officials here in new york say there's no new threat information to new york. but as a precaution, the nypd is now deploying extra units to the french consulate here in manhattan along with tourist destinations and other locations as a precaution. a city that's already been on heightened alert for years after 9/11 is going to see an increased security presence beyond the new normal with heavily armed officers across this city as a precaution until what is unfolding overseas is

better understood in terms is it isolated just to france or copycat attacks elsewhere? that's what's happening here in new york. fbi officials echoing that. jttf is closely monitoring, that joint terrorism task forces. here in the u.s., no new threat information. the concern over there in france as you had hundreds and hundreds of french citizens travel to syria, get training there. and many of them have returned to france and the french authorities have had their hands full trying to track these individuals, these cells, in terms of who would perhaps become operative inside their own countries. so it's been very difficult for them to monitor that. the u.s. has a much less significant number of radicalized individuals if you will for law enforcement to monitor. so they feel somewhat more confident that they have things

under control compared to obviously the situation in paris where they do not know at this time how many attackers are involved. we have heard reports of suicide bombers. two of them outside the football stadium and near that restaurant along with an explosion along with armed gunmen opening fire on the streets of paris and literally that as we have seen from the video and heard from the reporting, bodies in the streets of paris on this friday night as authorities are trying to put an end to this on going terror siege, this terror incident that's taking place in that city. >> and jonathan, we should note that dow jones is reporting not surprisingly that the french police have raised the terror alert across the entire paris region. once again, urging people to stay inside and tighten security at places that are open to the public. but speak to me -- everyone that we have interviewed tonight has said that, you know, paris police and the national police

force is very adept at dealing with these types of situations. yet, we have seen security tightened incredibly ahead of this climate summit that's coming up in two weeks. and this sort of event just occurred. so speak to me to your opinion of how the police can tighten security even further, given the fact that they had already heightened the level and we have this very, very unfortunate event unfolding before our eyes right here. >> based on my reporting and my conversations with the u.s. intelligence officials and some foreign officials, the problem is that you have still a small percentage of the population that is radicalized in france, in europe, in parts of britain, and they don't have the amount of resources to monitor all of them around the clock, 24 hours a day, seven days a week, and pick and have the best assessment of which potential radical suspect is going to

become operative. what is concerning here is this appears to be a sleeper cell. this kind of attack -- it has not happened in just 24 hours. they had to get weapons and build the bombs and build the materials and there was a group of them. what was the intelligence failure or breakdown or how were the operatives able to exist covertly for as long as they needed to get this operation planned? clearly, they knew what targets they were going for. they attacked near a soccer stadium where the president of france was attending. >> exactly. >> so the question now is, how did they -- we've heard in previous incidents there were guys who were on the radar screen and they decided, oh, they're no longer a threat. let's move on to system of the others and -- to some of the others and then the attacks took place inside france. >> would you agree with richard engel's -- he was talking to national security sources who said that they're looking more intently at al qaeda. they are not going to eliminate isis, but it seems more like al

qaeda. would you agree with that given your reporting and extensive knowledge -- >> i would not venture a guess. look, the u.s. officials i have spoken with at this point have no idea. and they are going to have to wait and it could be 24 to 48 hours before u.s. officials have a real clear sense of this operation. there's no doubt that al qaeda and the arabian peninsula has been posting -- boasting and calling for major attacks in europe and inside the u.s. and that is what their calling card. go for the big and the spectacular, but no doubt isis has been calling for do what you can. do it big or do it small. so i -- sitting where i'm sitting i would not venture a guess as to which branch of radical islamic terrorist group took part in this attack. we have seen in the russian jet

bombing groups were claiming responsibility and still it remains unproven as to exactly who or what brought down that plane. that investigation is ongoing and that's several weeks old. it will be some time and right now the priority is get inside that theater, save those people, put an end to this situation and find out who's responsible. then they'll have to go and raid their apartments. get those computers, get their cell phones. find out are they a self-governing, self-radicalized group or were they operating on orders from somewhere else? >> all right, jonathan dietz from wnbc, thank you very much. i suspect we'll be talking to you later again this evening. meantime, as we watch footage where it is a little before 1:00 a.m. in paris, let's go to seema mody for some more breaking news. >> tyler, thank you. french tv network bfm is reporting that the hostage situation at the bataclan theater is over and that two terrorists have been killed at that location. this report has not been confirmed by nbc news.

of course over the last hour we have learned that 100 people were being held hostage in the bataclan theater and people had been killed there as well. there was a concert taking place, eagles of death metal, and less than a few hundred yards away from the "charlie hebdo" offices. but the hostage situation at that theater is over. once we learn more we'll come back to you. >> thank you very much. meantime, let's bring in one of the most prominent observers of international affairs, ian bremer. president of the eurasia group. good to have you with us. there's a lot more we don't know than what we do know, but one of the things we do know events like this, whether they're the "charlie hebdo" attacks, the boston bombing, things like that, they felt more isolated and single to me than this one does. the very fact that this was three at least coordinated

attacks in three different venues, virtually simultaneously, sort of raises the bar or the threat potential here. does it strike you that way? >> it certainly does. it feels more like the mumbai bombings, we had seen civilian targets well coordinated. france is much better at counterterrorism than the indian government has been historically. so i mean, no question this feels like a 9/11 type event for the french. we are seeing far too much of this across europe. i wish that we could say that this is a one off thing. of course, the capabilities that we have seen specifically from isis over the past months have been gaining. they have become more strategic. the fact that isis looks to have brought down a russian plane in egypt only weeks after they started their military intervention in syria is very dramatically different from the capabilities we have seen from isis historically and of course the ones we have seen from al qaeda as well.

and we only have to look at what's happening with the refugee crisis across europe and where it's likely to be over the next year. as well as the lack of any solution on the ground in syria and iraq and understand where you expect this is going to go on the european continent from here. >> let's talk a little bit about isis, vis-a-vis al qaeda. people i think believe that isis comes closer to having the assets and organizational capabilities of a government. in other words, the ability to have real command and control. is that what you're seeing here, does this -- the nature of the coordination here suggest that it might be isis even though some of the higher -- and most recent suspicion this has the hallmarks of al qaeda? >> we have seen isis calling for more strategic attacks over the past weeks, different from mostly home grown and then when it's beyond that they have

opportunistically said we praise you be a lone wolf attacker, whether you're in australia or spain or anywhere else. but we're not going to coordinate it. the ability of isis to recruit internationally is clearly on the rise dramatically. the refugee crisis is facilitating it. they also have money. remember when isis took over w mosul in iraq, they grabbed an estimated $1 million in hard cash and currency. that they're using. now, i mean, i wouldn't i is a they have the capabilities of a meaningful government and the ability of the islamic state to persist is vulnerability to attacks on the ground, whether from the kurd, from the iraqi government or at the margins from the russians. but that's very different from the capabilities of isis as an organization. which is expanding, which has gotten loyalty from dozens of organizations in over a dozen states. and which clearly is ramping up

its capabilities to recruit. that's where europe is finding itself absolutely as ground zero for targeting increasingly these days. >> all right, we close in on the top of the hour. we appreciate it. ladies and gentlemen, if you have not been watching, welcome to cnbc. there has been a series of terror attacks in paris. here's where we stand at 7:00 p.m. in new york. 1:00 a.m. in paris. latest reports say at least 35 people have been killed in several locations across the french capital. >> there are also 100 hostages being held inside a concert hall. seema mody is at the breaking news desk. >> there are now further reports the hostage situation at the bataclan theater, reuters is saying the police operation at the concert hall where about 100 people have